Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has announced a new settlement in the occupied Golan Heights named after President Donald Trump.
At the naming ceremony yesterday, PM Netanyahu said ‘Trump Heights’ honoured President Trump for his decision to recognise Israeli sovereignty over the occupied territory.
Construction work has yet to begin but a sign with President Trump’s name and the US and Israeli flags was unveiled.
Israel captured the Golan Heights from Syria in the 1967 ‘Six Day War’.
In March, the US became the first country to recognise Israeli sovereignty over the land since Israel illegally annexed it in 1981.
PM Netanyahu said it was a “historic day”, praising President Trump as “a friend of Israel”.
US Ambassador David Friedman, who was present at the ceremony, described the settlement “well deserved, but much appreciated”.
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PM Netanyahu pledged in April to name a new settlement after President Trump, shortly after the POTUS overturned decades of US policy by recognising Israel’s illegal sovereignty over the Golan.
The region is located about 40 miles south-west of the Syrian capital, Damascus, and covers about 400 square miles.
The new illegal settlement will be built near Kela in the northern Golan Heights.
On Sunday, Israel’s cabinet approved PM Netanyahu’s bill for an “initiative to establish” a new Golan Heights community.
But the resolution falls short of declaring the establishment of a settlement, and no funds has yet been allocated for building work.
