The government’s attempt to avoid a confrontation with the Gush Emunim by extending the deadline for the complete removal of Elon Moreh from its present site appears to have been less than successful. While there has been no formal reaction from the Gush leadership, some prominent members of the group have privately expressed disappointment with Sunday’s Cabinet decision to evacuate Elon Moreh in two stages. They referred to it as a “ploy.”
According to the Cabinet’s decision, 30 acres of land will be evacuated Thursday in compliance with the Supreme Court’s ruling of Oct. 22 that Elon Moreh was established illegally on seized Arab lands and must be removed within 30 days. That acreage was the subject of an appeal by Arab villagers. Evacuation of the remaining 140 acres, which did not figure in the appeal, was put off from “four to six weeks.”
The Gush Emuim were angered by a statement attributed to “a high source in the Prime Minister’s Office” that unless they agreed in the next two weeks to cooperate, the government would refuse to build a new settlement for them at Djebil Kebir, an alternative site about six miles from the present one. Deputy Defense Minister Mordechai Zipori confirmed that this was the government’s position.
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.
