By Itzhak Rabihiya
At Festive Cabinet Meeting on the Golan Heights, Government Approves Establishment of New Golan Heights Community to be Named "Trump Heights" (Ramat Trump) after US President Donald Trump. PM said US president who recognized Israel’s control over strategic plateau is a ‘very great friend’
The Trump name until today belongs to apartment towers, hotels and golf courses. From now it is the namesake of a tiny Jewish community on the Golan Heights.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s cabinet convened in this hamlet on Sunday (16.6.2019) to formally approve and announce the inauguration of a new community named after US President Donald Trump.
The move came just over two months after the US leader recognized Israeli sovereignty over the strategic plateau that Israel captured from Syria in the 1967 Six Day War and later annexed, in a move not recognized by the wider international community. In 2017, Trump recognized Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and moved the US Embassy to the city in another move that broke ranks with the global community.
At a festive meeting on the Golan Heights, the Government, today (Sunday, 16 June 2019), approved the establishment of a new community on the Golan Heights, to be named "Trump Heights" (Ramat Trump), after US President Donald Trump. US Ambassador to Israel David Friedman also attended the meeting. Following the meeting a ceremony was held to unveil the sign for the new community with the participation of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the Government ministers.
Israel hopes the community, first built under a different name in the 1980s, will attract a wave of people to what is currently little more than an isolated outpost with just 10 residents.
Speaking at the ceremony to unveil a large sign bearing the community’s name in Hebrew and English, Netanyahu told the gathered dignitaries that “it is a milestone in the history of Golan.” Netanyahu said that "This is an historic day for us. We are going to do two things: Establish a new community on the Golan Heights, something which has not been done for many years. This is an act of settlement and of Zionism of the first order. The second thing is to honor our friend, a very great friend of the State of Israel, President Donald Trump, who recently recognized Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights. He is the first international leader to have done so. He tore the mask off this hypocrisy, which does not recognize what is self-evident".
Netanyahu added: Menachem Begin said that he had passed the Golan Heights Law. Sometimes even the self-evident needs to be stated, which President Trump has also done in this case, as well as in moving the embassy to Jerusalem, in leaving the nuclear agreement with Iran, and is doing at the moment in standing steadfast against Iranian aggression in the Gulf of Oman, the Persian Gulf and the region in general. We are proud that we have this opportunity to establish the community and also honor a great friend. I am very grateful to all of you who have come here. We will continue to build and develop the Golan for all its residents, Jewish and non-Jewish alike, and for the state as a whole."
US Ambassador Friedman noted in his remarks that the last community in Israel named after a serving US president was Kfar Truman, in 1949, to honor US president Harry Truman.
“I want to thank you for the extraordinary gesture that you and the State of Israel are making to the president of the United States,” Friedman said. “It is well deserved, but it is much appreciated, and we look forward to work[ing] with you and with the government of Israel to continue to strengthen the unbreakable alliance between the United States and Israel.”
“Anyone who has visited the Golan Heights… immediately realizes it is incredible important territory to the State of Israel. Few things are more important to the security of Israel than sovereignty over the Golan Heights,” he added.
In April, Netanyahu said Israel would name a town in the Golan Heights after Trump in honor of the US president’s decision to recognize Israeli sovereignty over the northern territory.
Trump signed a proclamation on March 25 recognizing Israel’s hold on the plateau when Netanyahu visited the White House, in a move seen by some as timed to help the Israeli premier in his reelection bid.
Attached photo credit: Kobi Gideon (GPO)
