por admin » Dom Jun 16, 2019 8:50 pm
Israel Unveils New Settlement in Disputed Golan Heights Named ‘Trump Heights’
Controversial move is a gesture of thanks for U.S. president recognizing Israeli control over the territory
Dov Lieber
Updated June 16, 2019 6:30 p.m. ET
GOLAN HEIGHTS—Shrugging off opposition from the international community, Israel’s government on Sunday unveiled a new Jewish settlement in a secluded and breezy area of the disputed Golan Heights named after President Trump.
Called Trump Heights, or Ramat Trump in Hebrew, the planned settlement reflects Israel’s will to cement Mr. Trump’s recent support for Israeli control over the contested territory, which it captured from Syria in the 1967 Six Day War.
Mr. Trump in March broke with decades of international consensus by recognizing Israel’s sovereignty over the Golan Heights. The United Nations and most world powers rejected Mr. Trump’s decision and continue to consider the Golan Heights occupied Syrian land whose status should be resolved through negotiations.
The new settlement is slated to take over what is now Bruchim, an Israeli community in the town of Kela Alon built decades ago that has just a handful of homes and residents. For now, a Trump Heights sign is all that has been added to the site.
Mr. Trump “has done things that should have been done by virtue of truth and justice,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said at the sign-unveiling ceremony for the new settlement. “The Golan was and will always be ours. The Golan is Israeli,” Mr. Netanyahu added.
The U.S. ambassador to Israel, David Friedman, who also attended the ceremony, said the Golan Heights was essential to Israel’s security. “Few things are more important to the state of Israel than permanent sovereignty over the Golan Heights,” he said.
Later Sunday, Mr. Trump on Twitter thanked Mr. Netanyahu for naming the settlement after him and called it a “great honor.”
Mr. Trump’s proclamation recognizing Israeli control over the region emphasized the security threats Israel faces, notably from Iranian proxies active in Syria. Iranian-backed forces have been operating in Syria for much of that nation’s eight-year civil war, but the timing of Mr. Trump’s statement on the Golan provided a political boost to Mr. Netanyahu in a close election contest.
Mr. Netanyahu went on to win the election in April, but failed to form a government, sending Israel for the first time in its history into a fresh round of elections that are scheduled for mid-September.
Zvi Hauser, a lawmaker in the Blue and White opposition party, criticized Sunday’s ceremony, noting that Israel’s finance ministry hadn’t approved funding for it.
“Let’s hope President Trump doesn’t realize his name is being used for a public relations exercise,” Mr. Hauser said in a statement Friday.
While building settlements in the West Bank—where millions of Palestinians live and hope to found a state—remains a divisive issue within Israel, the vast majority of Israelis support Israel’s permanent control over the Golan Heights, polls show.
The Israeli-controlled portion of the Golan Heights is about 500 square miles and home to around 50,000 people, half of whom are Jewish and half Arabic-speaking Druze. Many of the Druze there see themselves as Syrian, and refuse to accept Israeli citizenship.
On Sunday, Mr. Netanyahu argued that Israel’s control of the area is legitimate because it conquered the territory in a defensive war against Syria in 1967. Some legal experts dispute the legality of this claim, saying no territory can be acquired by war, defensive or otherwise.
Before the war, Syria used the strategic plateau to shell Israeli communities below. In 1973, Syria attempted to take back the territory but was repelled by Israel.
Mr. Netanyahu has said the security rationale behind the U.S. recognition of Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights could be applied to the West Bank as well. Days before the election in April, Mr. Netanyahu promised his government would annex parts of the West Bank.
Since Israel annexed the Golan Heights in 1981, successive Israeli leaders, including Mr. Netanyahu, held talks with Syria to return the territory in exchange for peace. Such talks were suspended after the start of the Syrian civil war in 2011, and now Israel says it never will relinquish control of the land.
That stance has drawn strong support among local Israelis. “We conquered this place,” said Michal Bar, 21, a restaurant employee who lives in the Golan Heights. “As long as I’m in Israel I won’t leave it.”