West Bank settlements plan shelved

Press, 16 August 1978, Page 8

West Bank settlements plan shelved

NZPA-Reuter Jerusalem Israel has halted efforts to start five Jewish settlements on occupied Arab land in the Jordan Valley until after next month’s tripartite summit in the United States. It was announced after a Cabinet meeting that Ministers had voted to defer all further discussion on the controversial question until after the peace talks between the Prime Minister (Mr Menachem Begin), President Anwar Sadat of Egypt and President Jimmy Carter of the United States starting at Camp David, Maryland, on September 5. The issue of similar settlements on Arab territory occupied by Israel since the 1967 Arab-Israeli war w’as widely blamed for the breakdown of peace talks earlier this year. Such settlement moves invariably arouse fury in the

Arab world and cause acute discomfort to Washington, where leaders have called such past Jewish settlements an obstacle to peace. The decision regarding the

five new “nahal” » paramilitary settlements on Jordanian West Bank territory taken in 1967 effectively squashed an undercover campaign for them by the Agriculture Minister (Mr Ariel Sharon). The controversial Mr Sharon, a former war hero and an ardent advocate of Jewish settlement on occupied Arab land, was absent from the Cabinet meeting on holiday, as was Mr Begin. The American Secretary of State (Mr Cyrus Vance) said the United States was against Israel’s plans for new settlements in the occupied West Bank, but was pleased its Cabinet has postponed any action on the settlements until after the Camp David summit. Officials said the State Department had complained to Israel about its proposal for five new military settlements in the West Bank.