Foreign Minister Yigal Allon strongly rebutted charges here today that the government had been influenced by American interference when it decided, ten days ago, to move the Kadum settlement elsewhere. Replying to a Knesset motion by Likud MK Yitzhak Shamir, Allon said there was no U.S. “interference.” The Israeli Cabinet took its decisions in accordance with its sovereign considerations of national interest, he said and stressed that the Kadum decision was “unequivocal.”
An alternatives site will be offered to the settlers “within a few weeks,” Allon said, and expressed hope they would accept it. He said he preferred not to assume that they would rebel against a Cabinet directive but if they did, the Cabinet would ensure that its decision was implemented. If Gush Emunim want to challenge the government’s policy, all the normal and accepted democratic processes are available to it, Allon added.
Taking issue with a statement attributed to Premier Yitzhak Rabin, Allon said he himself did not regret the establishment of Kiryat Arba outside Hebron. Rabin had noted last week that a large number of flats were vacant in Kiryat Arba and there was no apparent desire by Israelis to move into the enclave. Allon recalled that in 1968 he and Menachem Beigin who was then a Cabinet minister were the “godfathers” of Kiryat Arba when Rabbi Moshe Levinger and his supporters were fighting to establish it.
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