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Israel to build new settlement named after 'Trump'

In this file photo taken on March 25, 2019, US President Donald Trump (L) and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu hold up a Golan Heights proclamation outside the West Wing after a meeting in the White House in Washington, DC. (By AFP)

Israel is to construct a new illegal settlement and name it after US President Donald Trump in order to "express gratitude" for his services to the Zionist regime.

The new settlement, located in the Golan Heights, will be named "Ramat Trump" which means "Trump Heights" in English, according to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

"We will start today with practical steps to construct Ramat Trump in the Golan Heights," Netanyahu said at the start of the weekly cabinet meeting.

"The initiative to establish a new Golan Heights settlement to be named after President Donald Trump expresses gratitude for his work for ... Israel and the Golan Heights," the cabinet said in a statement.

Currently known as Bruchim, the settlement is over 30 years old and has a small population of about 10. However, Tel Aviv hopes it can encourage "a wave of residents" to expand it once the construction work begins there in three weeks time.

The Israeli cabinet approved 8 million Shekels (about $2.3 million) in funding in order to take practical steps to start building the Trump Heights as a gesture of gratitude for Trump's decision to ditch decades of US foreign policy and recognize Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights on March 25 of last year.

In 1967, Israel waged a full-scale war against Arab territories, during which it occupied a large swathe of Golan and annexed it four years later, a move never recognized by the international community.

In 1973, another war broke out and a year later, a UN-brokered ceasefire came into force, according to which Tel Aviv and Damascus agreed to separate their troops and create a buffer zone in the Golan Heights.

Israel has over the past decades built dozens of settlements in the Golan Heights in defiance of international calls for the regime to stop its illegal construction activities.

Syria has repeatedly reaffirmed its sovereignty over the Golan Heights, saying the territory must be completely restored to its control.


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