Prime Minister Golda Meir met for seven hours in her Jerusalem home yesterday with a group of leading writers in an effort to convince them of the justice of her government’s refusal to allow the former residents of two Galilee villages on the Lebanese border to return to the sites for resettlement.
The villagers were evacuated from the villages in 1948 because the areas were considered security sections and were resettled with compensation. The Cabinet recently rejected the latest appeal of the villagers to be allowed to return to the area, where the villages of Baram and Ikrit were leveled for security purposes. The Cabinet rejection stimulated a public outcry led by Israeli Jewish writers and intellectuals. Most of the intellectuals left the lengthy meeting unconvinced by the arguments offered by Mrs. Meir and Israel Galili, the Minister-Without-Portfolio who is a close advisor. Mrs. Meir and Galili described the military and political considerations for the refusal. Mrs. Meir stressed that all nine Chiefs of Staff of the Israel army had opposed return of the villagers to the Lebanese border sites. Galili said there had been 22 other Galilee villages similarly evacuated by Israel whose former inhabitants were waiting to see the final outcome of the Ikrit-Baram dispute before pressing their claims.
While most of the intellectuals reportedly remained convinced an injustice had been done which the Israel government should rectify, one of them–Moshe Shamir, former Hashomer Hatzair member who is now a member of the Land of Israel movement–said he was satisfied with the Meir-Galili explanations. However, he said he felt the government must do more than it had to compensate and rehabilitate the evacuees.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
