Israeli troops block extremists’ protest

Press, 21 September 1978, Page 8

Israeli troops block extremists’ protest

NZPA " § Tel Aviv

Israeli Army troops closed all roads leading into the Israeli occupied West Bank late yesterday after settlers at two Jewish settlements in the area put up “symbolic settlements” outside their, fences, the Israeli State radio reported. The military spokesman could not confirm the report, which said that the Defence Minister (Mr Ezer Weizman) had ordered troops to remove whatever structures had been put up and to forbid entry to Israelis to the West Bank of the Jordan River. - . Hundreds of Israelis had attempted to join about 100 members of the Gush Emunim—Hebrew for "Bloc of the faithful”—who moved secretly to set up a camp on a mountaintop about skm south of Nablus, despite a Government promise to halt all new settlements during the post-Camp David negotiations with Egypt. Earlier, the Israeli Government decided it would dismantle the settlement near Nablus, and reaffirmed its determination to prevent further settlement without its approval.

Israel’s political parties are pondering whether to accept their leaders decision to put Middle East peace before Jewish settlements in Sinai.

The Foreign. Minister (Mr Moshe Dayan) said that Israeli failure to comply with Egypt’s demand for withdrawal of civilians and soldiers from Sinai could lead to another war.

“If the majority of the people decided to reject the peace proposals, they should know what this would entail —another war to defend Sinai,” Mr Dayan told visiting Jewish fund-raisers. Mr Dayan and Mr Weizman said on their return from the Camp David summit meeting that a Knesset (Parliament) vote to remove the Sinai settlements could bring peace within three months. The Knesset will decide next week whether to approve the Camp David accords.

Israel has argued in the past that the Rafah Salient in northern Sinai was indispensible to the country’s security. It also said a land link between Eilat and Sharm-El-Sheikh on the southern tip of the peninsula

was needed to ensure the safety of Israeli shipping in the Gulf of Eilat.

The Labour Party leader, Shimon Peres, said that his party would support Mr Begin in the Knesset. Most members of other Opposition parties, except the Communists, were expected to guarantee the Prime Minister a majority. Most dissent has come from within the ruling coalition.

With the ink on the Camp David agreements barely dry and a full Israeli-Egyptian peace treaty yet to be negotiated, Israeli officials are already planning a series of joint economic projects with their former enemy. Most of the proposed ventures, ranging from nuclear power plants to a nature reserve, were first drawn up during the period after President Anwar Sadat’s historic visit to Jerusalem last November.

The most daring plans are those of the Israeli Energy Minister (Mr Yitzhak Modai) who wants to build two nuclear power stations in the Sinai Desert and set up a joint company to exploit the region’s oil deposits. .