The Israeli government has approved a NIS40 million ($11 million) plan to expand illegal Israeli settlements in the Golan Heights after IDF troops fully occupied the former UN-monitored disengagement zone established after the October 1973 Arab-Israeli War. “Strengthening the Golan is strengthening the State of Israel, and it is especially important at this time,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Dec. 15, the Times of Israel reported. “We will continue to hold onto it, make it flourish, and settle it.”