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Israeli soldiers look towards Syria from the Golan Heights (archive)
Photo: Ronen Zvulun / REUTERS
According to international law, the areas are considered occupied territory of Syria.
But now Israel has decided to significantly increase the settlement of the annexed Golan Heights.
"After many years of stagnation, our goal today is to double the population in the Golan Heights," said Prime Minister Naftali Bennett at a special government meeting in Kibbutz Mevo Chama on the plateau above the Sea of Galilee on Sunday.
In the city of Katzrin they want to build two new quarters.
In addition, two new settlements were to be built on the Golan Heights: Assif and Matar.
They want to invest around a billion shekels (around 280 million euros).
The Golan Heights should become Israel's renewable energy technology center, Bennett said.
In addition to industry, the government also wants to promote local tourism and invest in transport and medical infrastructure, writes the Israeli daily Jerusalem Post.
Bennett: "We make history"
Bennett immediately advertised on Twitter to settle in the Golan Heights.
The region is only waiting for Israelis "who are looking for a place to build their house."
Under a photo that shows him after landing in a helicopter in the region, he speaks of an »important day«.
The Jerusalem Post quoted the Prime Minister as saying: "We are making history in the Golan Heights."
The Golan Heights are a strategically important rock plateau, about 60 kilometers long and 25 kilometers wide.
In 1967 the plateau was conquered by Israel and annexed in 1981.
But that was not recognized internationally.
According to international law, the territories are considered to be the territory of Syria occupied by Israel.
Former US President Donald Trump formally recognized the Golan Heights as the state of Israel in March 2019, thereby completing a U-turn in US foreign policy.
"After more than ten years of terrible civil war in Syria, every sane person in the world understands that Israeli, calm, thriving, and green Golan Heights are better than any other alternative," Bennett said.
"The Golan Heights are Israeli, that is undisputed." More than 50,000 people currently live on the rocky plateau, slightly more than half of them Jewish Israelis.
The rest are Druze and a small Alawite minority.
jus / AP