A large-scale Israeli colonization program in 1949 requiring a minimum outlay of $40,000,000, was outlined here today by Levi Eshkol, head of the Jewish Agency’s agricultural department. He voiced the hope at a press conference that the Jewish people would provide the necessary funds for this program, since colonization of Israel is one of the “pillars of Zionist ideology” and the Jewish state was established to “quench Jewish thirst for soil and colonization.”
Eshkol disclosed that there are two colonization schemes under consideration. One would provide for the establishment of a minimum of 100 new settlements during the coming fiscal year, while the second plan calls for the setting up of a minimum of 50 new colonies within the next six months, if not in the next three months.
A special committee, made up of representatives of the Jewish Agency, the Keren Kayemeth, Keren Hayesod, the Israeli Government and the Army, has worked out a priority scale for colonizational activities and has even spotted on a map of Israel which settlements should be erected first.
Colonization will be carried out in three main sections of the country–in Galilee, the Jerusalem area and in the Negev. The plan is designed, firstly, to meet Israel’s urgent requirements, secondly, to absorb new immigrants and, thirdly, to consolidate the achievements of the Israeli Army. The scheme also calls for the establishment of a chain of settlements along the Syrian frontier, all of them on land previously acquired by the Jewish National Fund.
Under the plan’s provisions, a “colonization zone” embracing the approaches to Jerusalem would be established. Nine settlements have already been launched in this zone, while several others will be added within the next two months to fortify the approaches to the Holy City. These colonies will constitute a “pincer-like” protection for Jerusalem, thus removing any danger of an assault on the city. The “pincer” will stretch from Beer Tuviah to Beersheba through Beit Jibrin, while the center of the third chief areca of colonization–the Negev–will be Beersheba, where regional offices of the Agency’s agricultural department will soon be opened.
Eshkol further outlined a plan for the development of Beersheba as the agricultural, administrative, cultural and commercial center of the entire Negev, with a highway stretching from that town to the Dead Sea.
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