Government to Approve Plan of NIS 1 Billion for Golan Heights
In recent news, the government ministers of the State of Israel have decided to schedule their weekly meeting of the cabinet on a Sunday. The meeting will be held in a kibbutz, located in Golan Heights, where the relevant ministers are set to give their approval for a development plan worth NIS 1 billion. The aim of the plan is to ensure that there is demographic growth, in an area that is considered to be strategic, in the years to come.
It was formulated by a group of individuals led by the director-general of the Office of the Prime Minister, Yair Pines. In addition, the government hopes to boost the population in the Regional Council of Golan, as well as the Katzrin Local Council in the years 2022 till 2025.
Back in the month of October, the Prime Minister of the Jewish state himself, Naftali Bennet, took to announcing the plan. He said that the ultimate goal of this development in Golan Heights was to ensure that the number of residents came up to 100,000 in the upcoming years. As of now, there are around 53,000 people residing in the area. This includes an estimate of 27,000 Jews, 2,000 Alawites, and 24,000 Druze. According to the Prime Minister, Golan is a strategic goal for his government. He went on to reveal that his plan for the area is to first double the residents and then double them again after a specific time period.
The meeting of the ministers is to be held in Mevo Hama, situated in Golan Heights itself. This is the first time since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic in the country that all the ministers attending the meeting will be asked to take a rapid antigen test of the coronavirus. They will not be permitted to enter the cabinet meeting unless they provide proof of negative results. In addition to doubling the number of residents in the area, the government plan focuses on upgrading the infrastructure of Golan Heights, as well as establishing new neighborhoods and communities. It also aims to create no less than 2,000 new jobs by way of transforming the region into the capital of renewable energy technologies in the country.
The proposal for Golan Heights further includes a handful of agricultural technology projects, as revealed by a report that surfaced related to its development. These projects will also consist of several agro-voltaic projects, where solar panels or PV (photovoltaic) panels are placed over crop fields. These panels are known for facilitating the growth of the crop while generating electricity side by side. An approximate amount of NIS 576 million is going to be allocated for the purpose of housing planning. These will include around 3,300 new units in the area of Katzrin and an additional 4,000 in the Regional Council of Golan. All of these are to be built within a time span of five years.
Furthermore, two new locales are to be constructed in the area. As per the report, each is going to have no less than 2,000 housing units.
