Mayors forbidden to return

Press, 22 October 1980, Page 8

Mayors forbidden to return

NZPA-Reuter Ramallah The Israeli authorities had decided that two West Bank Palestinian mayors exiled to Jordan would not be allowed to return to their homes, their lawyer said yesterday. She said a special military court had rejected appeals from Fahd al-Ka-wasrne, of Hebron, and Mohammed Milhem, of

Halhoul, against their expulsion five months ago on charges of alleged antiIsraeli incitement. The lawyer said they had 48 hours to appeal to the Israeli Supreme Court before they were deported again. They had returned to Israel to appear before the military board. The mayors were expelled from the West Bank in May after six

Jewish settlers were killed in Hebron by Palestinian guerrillas. In two long military appeal court sessions held near the Allenby Bridge over the Jordan River, the two Palestinians denied the charges against them. The Israelis said that statements by the two led to the attack on Hebron. The mayors’ lawyer, Mrs Felicia Langer, depl-

ored the expulsion decision. “It is a miserable and unjust resolution which I find very hard to understand,” she said after meeting the military’ governor of the West Bank, Brigadier-Genera! Binyamin Ben-Eliezer. She said no reasons had been given by’ the Court. She would appeal to the Supreme Court.