The Cabinet has approved and referred to the Knesset an absentee compensation draft law that would permit East. Jerusalem Arabs who owned property in Israel before 1948 to file claims for financial compensation. According to the draft which the Cabinet voted on yesterday, compensation would be in the form of long-term bonds. The total sum involved, if all of those eligible file claims, is estimated at over $300 million.
Dr. Zerach Warhaftig, the Minister for Religious Affairs, failed in his effort to have the draft law amended to include all former Arab property owners living in the occupied territories. His Cabinet colleagues did not vote on his proposal. Some of them viewed his suggestion as “annexationist in spirit.”
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.
