The Ministerial Settlement Committee decided today to go ahead with the establishment of three new settlements on the West Bank. All three, officials stressed, were approved by the previous government. The Committee today had merely decided to translate that earlier approval-in-principle into action, officials said.
But privately, government sources acknowledged that the move would very likely occasion negative reaction from Washington which only last month protested sharply at Israel’s decision to formally legalize three West Bank settlements already in existence.
The three new ones now to be built are: Yatir, between Hebron and Beersheba, to be settled by Gush Emunim; Zur Natan, just across the Green Line from Petach Tikva, to be settled by a Hashomer Hatzair group according to Israel Radio; and Mevo Haran Gimmel, across the Green Line near Ramle, to be settled by Poalei Agudat Yisrael which already has a number of settlements in that area on both sides of the Green Line.
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.
