Israel Will Expand Jewish Settlements in Golan Heights

Israel will expand four Jewish settlements in the occupied Golan Heights under a plan approved Wednesday by a committee chaired by Infrastructure Minister Ariel Sharon, his spokesman said.

A total of 2,300 housing units for settlers and 2,500 holiday apartments will be built at Maale Gamla, Ramot, Kanaf and Had Nes, which overlook the Sea of Galilee, the spokesman, Raanan Gissin, said.

“The decision is aimed mainly at bolstering tourism there and giving an impetus to growth and employment,” he said about the move, which is certain to anger Syria.

Israel captured the Golan Heights from Syria in the 1967 Six-Day War and has since settled about 15,000 Jews on the strategic northeastern plateau.

The area has been a key subject of contention between the two countries in more than six years of on-again, off-again peace talks.

Israel and Syria have not held negotiations since before right-winger Benjamin Netanyahu was elected prime minister in 1996 vowing to keep the Golan under Israeli control.

Syria wants to pick up where discussions left off, taking account of concessions Damascus says were made by Israel’s previous, Labor Party-led government, which said publicly that the depth of withdrawal from the Golan would reflect the depth of peace.

Sharon, a strong advocate of Jewish settlement on Arab land captured in 1967, heads a ministerial committee in charge of developing Israel’s Negev desert in the south and the Galilee in the north, which under the group’s mandate includes the Golan.