Rivlin: 14 New Settlements Due in Israel and the Administered Areas

Moshe Rivlin, director general of the Jewish Agency, announced today that preparations have begun for the establishment of 14 new settlements in Israel and the administered territories. Rivlin said at a press conference here that the new settlement projects were a direct outcome of the world conference on Jewish solidarity with Israel and Zionism held here last week which he termed one of “the best Jewish conventions ever,” (See separate stories P.3 and P.4.)

Rivlin said the 14 new settlements were the first phase of a larger 30 settlement project. Four of them will be established on the Golan Heights in accordance with a recent decision by the ministerial settlement committee in response to the General Assembly’s anti-Zionist resolution of Nov. 10. One settlement will be established in the Jordan Valley, one in the Gilboa region, one in the Rafah salient and the rest in Galilee, Six of the settlements are intended for new immigrants.

ILLEGAL SETTLEMENTS ASSAILED

Premier Yitzhak Rabin, meanwhile, has drawn a sharp distinction between settlements authorized by the government and Israel’s national institutions and those set up illegally by groups of zealots in open defiance of government policies, “If we want to keep a democracy the minority has to accept the rules of the majority,” Rabin told the assemblage of diaspora Jewish leaders and prominent Israelis attending last week’s solidarity conference.

His reference was to the group of squatters of the militantly Orthodox Gush Emunim movement who established an encampment one week ago at Sebastia in central Samaria without government authorization. (The Cabinet was expected late tonight to decide on the evacuation of the settlers. Defense Minister Shimon Peres, who visited the settlement site earlier today, told the settlers they would be evacuated early tomorrow morning and asked them to leave peacefully.)

But Rabin was firm when he declared that while his government favors new settlements in principle, it has a list of priorities that call for the establishment of settlements along the borders rather than “50 kilometers from Tel Aviv,” Rabin invited “those who are so keen to settle the country” to “go to the Jordan Valley.”

ACCOMPLISHMENTS OF ‘SUMMIT’ PARLEY

Rivlin enumerated to newsmen today the accomplishments of what was termed the Jewish “summit” conference. He said that in prompt implementation of the conference’s decisions to intensify aliya efforts, the American National Aliya Council will convene in New York next Sunday to discuss greater local community involvement in aliya.

Rivlin reported that local aliya committees are already active in Miami, Milwaukee, Cleveland, St. Louis and Detroit. The New York conference will be attended by Israeli Defense Minister Shimon Peres and Leon Dulzin, acting chairman of the Jewish Agency and World Zionist Organization Executives.

Rivlin was particularly enthusiastic over the response to the conference’s call on Jewish organizations abroad to make Israel the site of their major gatherings. He said the United Jewish Appeal would hold its annual convention in Jerusalem in October, 1976 with 2000 participants; Hadassah will bring 1000 women to Israel next June to inaugurate the Moshe Sharett Cancer Research Institute sponsored by Hadassah; the Israel’ Bond Organization will hold a meeting here in January with 300 attending; the American Jewish Committee will hold its convention in Israel for the first time next February at the same time the Canadian Zionist Organization will be convening here.

Rivlin said that it was “only natural” that many of the 170 diaspora Jewish leaders who attended the “summit” meeting came with skepticism. But they left with enthusiasm; he said, declaring the conference a “complete success.” Rivlin apparently was referring in his remarks to complaints by many delegates that the conference was hastily and poorly organized and that many of its resolutions were prepared beforehand without consulting Jewish leaders abroad.