Part of the Golan Heights. Photo: Golan Regional Council.

i24 News – The Israeli cabinet will hold its weekly meeting on Sunday in the Golan Heights to approve a $317 million development plan for the hilly region in the far northeastern part of the country.

Prime Minister Naftali Bennett is expected to announce the investment alongside ministers at Kibbutz Mevo Hama, which includes the goal to double the population to 100,000 with infrastructure and transportation upgrades and construction of new communities and housing units.

The plan also includes the creation of 2,000 jobs to turn the Golan Heights into Israel’s renewable energy capital.

A team led by the Director General of the Prime Minister’s Office, Yair Pines, formulated the plan, with the goal of increasing the population of the Golan Regional Council and Katzrin Local Council between 2022 and 2025.

Katzrin, known as the unofficial capital of the Golan, will see 3,300 new housing units built within five years as part of $183 million allotted toward planning and housing.

In addition, the government intends to establish two new communities in the Golan — Assif and Matar.

For the first time since the start of the pandemic, all ministers will have to pass a rapid antigenic Covid test before attending the cabinet meeting.

In 2019, former US president Donald Trump recognized Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights, which Israel conquered in the Six Day War in 1967. A new community, named Trump Heights, was subsequently established in the Golan to honor the gesture of the American president.