Trump heights:
At the end of a winding road on a dusty hill in the Israeli-annexed Golan, the yellow gates of Trump Heights slowly open to cars, past a gold-lettered sign honoring the US president-elect.
The settlement, decorated with Israeli and American flags, pays tribute to Donald Trump who in 2019 recognized Israel's sovereignty over the strategic plateau, making the United States the first and so far only country to do so.
Five years after its inauguration, the modest settlement is home to some 26 Jewish families living in a cluster of makeshift houses and caravans, although they have plans to significantly expand the settlement.
Within the next year, Trump Heights will double its population, community leader Yarden Freimann told AFP on Tuesday, and in three years he expects 99 families to move into new homes on spacious plots with new infrastructure to match.
Freimann may soon receive 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 the overthrow of President Bashar al-Assad in neighboring Syria last week, and a subsequent decision to move Israeli troops to a UN-guarded buffer zone in the Syrian-occupied Golan area.
Israel has also carried out hundreds of attacks on Syrian military assets in an effort to prevent them from falling into enemy hands. Israel has repeatedly warned of 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 the two-thirds it controlled in 1981.
'Strong civil border'
Jewish settlements in the area, located in the annexed part of the Golan, warmly welcomed the newly allocated budget, especially after more than a year of rocket fire and drone attacks by the Iranian-backed operator group Hezbollah in neighboring Lebanon.
“We are very happy that the government understands the importance of the Golan and the need to invest not only in its security, but also in the growth of the community here,” said Yaakov Selavan, deputy head of the Regional Council of the Golan Heights.
“As Israel's northeastern border, we are not here just because of positions,” he said, adding that Hamas' Oct. 7, 2023, attack on southern Israel had demonstrated “the need for a strong civilian border.”
“After the worst tragedy in the history of the modern state of Israel, we must now continue to build and build back better,” said Selavan, a resident of the nearby settlement of Yonatan.
He said a strategic plan is already in place to develop the area, which is home to about 30,000 Jewish residents.
They live together with about 23,000 Druze, whose presence predates the occupation and who largely remain loyal to Syria.
In addition to improving roads and other infrastructure and expanding existing settlements, the plan includes creating three new communities, one next to Trump Heights and another, possibly on a controversial piece of land disputed with Lebanon.
“We just got the papers from the Israel Land Authority,” Selavan said, pointing to a map to the area that Israelis call Mount Dov and that Lebanese know as Shebaa Farms.
He said a team was already preparing to explore the possibility of building there.
Contacted by AFP, the Land Authority did not immediately respond to Selavan's claim.
'This is our reality'
In Trump Heights, outside of temporary structures, the earth has already been cleared to lay the foundations of about 50 new homes.
Freimann said three years after the first family arrived in 2021, the community now has about 70 adults and more than 60 children under the age of 13.
Freimann said all the families stayed despite last year's war because of the “interpersonal connection” of the community, a mix of religious and secular Jews.
Population growth has nevertheless been slow, despite previous government attempts to stimulate this growth.
Outside one of the small houses, Yedidya Ostroff, 31, cleared away fallen tree limbs and leaves. He moved to Trump Heights with his wife on Tuesday.
“We came here because the vision of this community, the people here and their ambitions for the future were just right for us,” he said.
When asked if they were concerned about the volatile security situation, Ostroff said: “I'm not worried… this is what we know, unfortunately. I hope it remains calm, but this is our reality.”
(This story has not been edited by Our staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)