Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says a site for a promised new settlement to be named after US President Donald Trump had been chosen and approval was under way.
“I promised that we would establish a community named after President Trump,” Mr Netanyahu said at the weekly cabinet meeting on Sunday. “I would like to inform you that we have already selected a site in the Golan Heights where this new community will be established, and we have started the process.”
Mr Netanyahu pledged such a move last month, in appreciation of Mr Trump’s recognition of Israel’s claim of sovereignty over part of the strategic plateau.
Mr Trump broke with longstanding international consensus on March 25 when he recognised Israel’s claim of sovereignty over the part of the Golan it seized from Syria in the 1967 Six-Day War. That came after the US President in December 2017 said Washington would recognise the disputed city of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, sparking outrage among the Palestinians who claim Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem as the capital of their own future state.
The US embassy was moved from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem and inaugurated on May 14, 2018. Canberra last December recognised Jerusalem as the Israeli capital, but will not move the Australian embassy until Israel and the Palestinian Authority strike a two-state solution.
Read the article in The Australian (AFP).