Israel’s cabinet will meet in the Golan Heights on Sunday tohonour US President Donald Trump and vote on naming a settlement there afterhim, the prime minister’s office announced.
Trump in March broke with decades of international consensusand recognised Israeli sovereignty over the Golan, a strategic area seized fromSyria in the 1967 Six-Day war and later annexed.
His decision was heralded by Israeli Prime Minister BenjaminNetanyahu, who promised to name a new settlement after Trump.
“The cabinet will meet on the Golan Heights this Sundayto thank President Trump for having recognised Israeli sovereignty of theGolan,” the prime minister’s office said Thursday.
The ministers will vote on whether to support naming asettlement after Trump and, if approved, will subsequently vote on its precisename.
According to Israeli media, the settlement is set to builtin the northern Golan and dubbed “Trump Heights”.
Israel’s 1981 annexation of 1,200 square kilometres of theGolan has never been recognised by the international community.
Around 18,000 Syrians from the Druze sect — most of whomrefuse to take Israeli citizenship — remain in the occupied Golan. Some 20,000Israeli settlers live there in over 33 settlements.
Trump also sparked outrage across the Arab and Muslim worldsin December 2017, when he recognise the disputed city of Jerusalem as Israel’scapital.
Israel insists the whole of Jerusalem is its “eternal,indivisible capital”. The Palestinians demand the city’s eastern sector asthe capital of their long-promised state.