Begin rules out more Israeli withdrawals

Press, 4 May 1979, Page 5

Begin rules out more Israeli withdrawals

f’ZPA-Reuter Jerusalem; The Israeli Prime Minister; (Mr Menachem Begin) has made it clear he con-1 templates no extensive with-; drawals from occupied Arabi land in return for over-all | Middle East peace. He made his statement on ; the first Independence Day! Israelis had known on which! they could hail peace with an Arab neighbour. In an hour-long radio interview. I Mr Begin took stock of the results of ■ last month’s! Israel-Egypt peace treaty. A principal part of his; message was that no precedent should be read into Israel's withdrawal from the, Sinai Desert as the price of, the treaty with Egypt. An interviewer asked if. in return for peace with Syria. Mr Begin would hand back! the Golan Heights, seized by Israel in the Six Day War in “We shall never withdraw from the Golan Heights," Mr Begin said. “There is no! such thing as sacrificing security in return for peace.

There is no peace without securitv. Without the Golan Heights there is no security. We shall therefore make

peace while we are on the Golan Heights."

Similarly, Mr Begin reite-i rated that he would never I agree to yielding up Israeli! I control over the West Bank! [of the Jordan — a region he I ; regards as a God-given part [ of the land of Israel. “There will never again be ia border in the western part lof the land of Israel,” Mr i Begin said. This meant he would not ; allow the re-creation of a ; boundary between Israel proper and the West Bank [area seized from Jordan in 1967. In the school of theoJogy to which Mr Begin adheres, the land of Israel embraces in its “eastern parts” areas of Jordan as well. But; even the most extremist of Israelis no longer lays claim to these. Mr Begin expressed con- | fidence that agreement would be reached on setting up autonomy for Arabs inside the West Bank, as stipulated in the Camp David i accords.

Arab protesters clashed with Jewish marchers on the West Bank and one Arab student was badly wounded by gunfire, while Israel was celebrating its 31st anniversary.

The extremist Jewish settler movement. Gush Emunim, marked the event by organising a procession of thousands of its followers through the central part of the West Bank. Close to Ramallah, home of the pro-Pales.tinian Bir Zeit University, several hundred Arab students blocked the road and hurled stones ■at the Jewish demonstrators. Gunfire broke out, and Arab sources blamed it on the Gush Emunim demonstrators. Israeli forces imposed a curfew on Bir Zeit University and sent in troops to hunt for demonstrators. Further trouble was reported from Hebron in the south of the West Bank.