Residents of this new town in the central Golan Heights which was dedicated today on Tu B’Shvat, the Jewish Arbor Day, were pleased to hear from an official government spokesman that Israel will not withdraw from the Golan.
“I was asked by the Premier to relay to you, people of the Golan Heights, people of Katzerin, that the Israeli government has resolved never to withdraw from the Golan Heights,” Construction Minister Gideon Patt told the 100 families already settled in Katzerin and people from other Golan settlements attending the ceremony.
Patt pledged that “with this resolute spirit, we shall act to ensure that the Golan Heights will actually be, what we and you all want it to be. All development plans for the Golan Heights will continue.
The Minister was given the key to the new town to take to Premier Menachem Begin, who had planned to attend the ceremony but had to be in Jerusalem instead to address the Knesset. Golan settlers, including many from the Druze community, asked Patt to relay to Begin their demand that Israel annex the Golan.
Katzerin is located near the site of an ancient village of the same name where excavations have unearthed a synagogue and other traditional Jewish items. Plans call for it to be the urban center of the Golan by the end of the decade, with some 5000 housing units.
The Gush Emunim used Tu B’Shvat to mark the groundbreaking of their own township, Shiloh in Samaria, by planting some trees there. The Ministry of Defense, which had refused to grant the Gush permission for the ceremony, apparently decided to overlook it. But Education Minister Zevulun Hammer, who reportedly said he would attend, did not show up, nor did any other representative of the government.
There were also tree plantings in the town of Yamit in the Rafeh salient, and in the Jordan Valley. Throughout Israel thousands of school children, the elderly and new immigrants participated in traditional tree planting ceremonies under the auspices of the Jewish National Fund. Planting ceremonies will continue throughout the week.
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.
