Anger, strike greet Israeli building scheme

Press, 26 March 1980, Page 8

Anger, strike greet Israeli building scheme

. i NZPA-Reuter Jerusalem 1 A 24-hour general strike of Arab shops and businesses throughout the occupied . West Bank has been called in protest against an Israeli) 'Cabinet decision to establishi [two Jewish education cen- ; jtres in the Arab town of! Hebron. j The Cabinet, itself clearly j [divided over the issue, has, [been roundly condemned by; the Israeli press and at-j | tacked by eminent politi-i j cians including two former [ | Foreign Ministers. Moshe [ iDayan and Abba Eban. i At its meeting on Monday.! [the Cabinet decided by a. I narrow, eight-to-six majority! | to set up a Jewish religious i | school and a history-study i [centre in two Jewish-ownedj ! buildings in the centre ofl ' Hebron. [ West Bank mayors and reI ligious and political leaders have held a protest meeting and delivered their angriest attacks on the Government since last November, when Israel tried unsuccessfully to expel the Mayor of Nablus (Mr Bassam Shaka). i The Arab leaders called for the 24-hour strike as an i initial act of protest. Israeli ! military sources said troops I would not intervene in the j strike other than to keep the 1 peace. ]

The Mayor of Bethlehem (Mr Elias Freij) told the protest meeting: “The Israeli Government intends to push the Arabs off their land and turn good agricultural areas into Jewish settlements. This policy can only be opposed by force.”

The Cabinet vote cut across party lines with several influential members, including the Defence Minister (Mr Ezer Weizman) and two Deputy Prime Ministers (Mr Simcha Ehrlich andMr.Yigael Yadin) voting against the new r education centres.

The Cabinet decision win ibe discussed by the Parlia* 'mentary foreign affairs and defence committee, tomorrow. Yesterday, with several i members of Mr Menachem | Begin’s ruling coalition deck j aring their opposition, politii cal sources said a majority i of the committee would vote against it. • The independent newspaper. “Haaretz,” called the decision “totally irrational,” and "Maariv.” which | s usually sympathetic to the Government, said the Government had “succeeded in reaching the worst possible decision at the most unsuitable moment possible.”

In the occupied territories, the decision appeared certain to provoke another flare-up of Palestinian nationalist sentiment. and political sources said the Government! might eventually fall if it came under further political pressures.

Israeli soldiers yesterday forcibly removed about 50 ultra-nationalists who, had tried to set up an illegal settlement in northern Sinai during the night. The would-be settlers, mostly members of. Gush Emunim (Faith Bloc), which believes in the God-given right of Jews to all the Biblical land of Israel, object to Israel’s Camp David agreements with Egypt. Under the . accords, the north Sinai strip, together with the settlements set up there after it was captured by Israel in the 1967 Middle East war, will be handed back to Egypt in late 1982. Israel has already returned more than two-thirds 'of Sinai to Egypt. Troops were called in after; the settlers refused to leave. Most of them were carried by soldiers into waiting trucks and buses and three partially-erected huts were dismantled.'