At the end of a winding road up a dusty hill in the Israeli-occupied Golan, the yellow doors of Trump Heights slowly open to cars, passing a gold-lettered sign honoring the US president-elect.
Decorated with Israeli and US flags, the agreement is a tribute to Donald Trump, who in 2019 recognized Israel’s sovereignty over the strategic plateau, making the United States the first and so far the only country to do so.
Five years after its opening, this modest settlement is home to about 26 Jewish families living in a cluster of temporary homes and caravans, although they have plans to expand it significantly.
Community leader Yarden Freeman told AFP on Tuesday that within the next year, the population of Trump Heights will double and that within three years he expects 99 families to move into new homes on spacious plots with new infrastructure.
Freeman may soon get official support, with the Israeli government on Sunday approving a plan to spend 40 million shekels ($11 million) to double the Jewish population in the Golan.
The plan followed last week’s overthrow of President Bashar al-Assad in neighboring Syria and subsequent decision to move Israeli troops into a UN-patrolled buffer zone in the Syrian-held Golan region.
Israel has also carried out hundreds of strikes on Syrian military assets, it says, to prevent them from falling into hostile hands, as it has repeatedly warned against the threat posed by the neighboring country’s new Islamic rulers.
Israel captured most of the Golan from Syria during the 1967 Arab–Israeli War and annexed two-thirds of the territory under its control in 1981.
‘Strong civil border’
In the region’s Jewish settlements located in the annexed part of the Golan, the newly allocated budget was warmly welcomed, especially after more than a year of rocket fire and drone attacks by the Iran-backed operator group Hezbollah in neighboring Lebanon.
Yaakov Selavan, deputy head of the Golan Heights Regional Council, said, “We are very pleased that the government understands the importance of the Golan and the need to invest not only in security, but also in growing the community here.”
“As for Israel’s northeastern border, we are not here just because of ideas,” he said, adding that Hamas’ October 7, 2023 attack on southern Israel had shown “the need for a strong civilian border.”
“After the worst tragedy in the history of the modern state of Israel, we now need to continue building and building better,” said Selavan, a resident of the nearby settlement Yonatan.
He said a strategic plan was already in motion to develop the area, which has a Jewish population of about 30,000.
They live alongside about 23,000 Druze, whose presence predates the occupation and who remain largely loyal to Syria.
In addition to improving roads and other infrastructure and expanding existing settlements, the plan includes building three new communities, one next to Trump Heights and the other, possibly, on a controversial stretch of land disputed with Lebanon.
“We actually got papers from the Israel Land Authority,” Selavan said, pointing to the area on a map that Israelis call Mount Dov and Lebanese know as Shebaa Farms.
He said a team was already preparing to explore the possibility of construction there.
Contacted by AFP, the Land Authority did not immediately respond to Selavan’s claim.
‘This is our reality’
In Trump Heights, beyond the temporary structures, land has already been cleared to lay the foundations for about 50 new homes.
Freeman said that in 2021, three years after the first family arrived, the community now has about 70 adults and more than 60 children under the age of 13.
Freeman said all the families stayed despite the previous year’s war because of the “mutual bond” of the community, which is a mix of religious and secular Jews.
Despite efforts by the previous government to encourage it, population growth has been slow.
Outside one of the small homes, Yedidya Ostroff, 31, cleaned up fallen tree branches and leaves. He moved into Trump Heights with his wife on Tuesday.
“We came here because the vision of this community, its people and their aspirations for the future were a perfect fit for us,” he said.
Asked if he was concerned about the volatile security situation, Ostroff said, “I’m not worried… unfortunately this is what we know. I hope it stays calm, but that’s our reality.”
(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
