Syria condemns Israel's plans to expand Golan settlements
Syria has called Israel's plans to double the number of settlers living in the Israeli-annexed Golan Heights “dangerous and unprecedented.”
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.Syria said Monday that Israel’s plans to double the number of settlers living in Israeli-annexed Golan Heights are “dangerous and unprecedented” and only perpetuate its occupation of the territory.
Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett announced on Sunday a multimillion-dollar plan meant to double the number of settlers living in the region that Israel captured from Syria more than five decades ago.
The U.S. recognized Israel’s sovereignty over the Golan in 2019. The rest of the international community regards the territory as Israeli occupied.
“Syria strongly condemns the dangerous and unprecedented escalation from the Israeli occupation forces in the occupied Syrian Golan Heights and its persistence in settlement policies and grave and methodological violations that rise to the level of war crimes,” a Syrian Foreign Ministry statement said.
The statement said the Syrian government remains committed to the Syrians living in the Golan “who are steadfast in their resistance to the Israeli occupation and their rejection of the decision to annex the Golan.”
Entrenching Israeli control over the territory would complicate any future attempt to forge peace with Syria.
Bennett made his announcement during a special Cabinet meeting in the Golan Heights. His office said the government would i nvest some 1 billion shekels (over $300 million) into developing the Golan, including the establishment of two new settlements.
Israel captured the Golan Heights in the 1967 Mideast war and later annexed the territory. Bennett said Syria’s decade-long war made the idea of Israeli control of the territory more acceptable to its international allies, adding that the alternative would be much worse.
Some 50,000 people live in the Golan Heights — roughly half of them Jewish Israelis and half in Druze Arab villages that formerly were part of Syria. Some of the Druze population opposes Israeli control.