— Premier Menachem Begin visited Elon Moreh and three other settlements in the Samaria district last Friday in an apparent election campaign move to remind his constituents how Jewish settlements on the West Bank have expanded under the Likud government. It was his first visit to the site since May, 1977 when, in the wake of Likud’s upset victory over the Labor Party, he pledged that “many more Elon Morehs will be established.”
Begin was accompanied by Agriculture Minister Ariel Sharon who heads the Ministerial Settlement Committee and is the most outspoken advocate of massive Jewish settlement in the occupied territories; Interior Minister Yosef Burg; and Finance Minister Yoram Aridor. In addition to Elon Moreh, they stopped at Karnei Shomron, Kedumim and Ariel.
At each settlement the visitors were greeted with the traditional bread and salt. But many residents complained that the government was not settling the territories fast enough. Begin pointed out that the Jewish population on the West Bank has increased from 5000 in 30 settlement to 24,000 in 85 settlements and towns during his term in office and that in the past four months the Military government seized some 5000 acres to expand existing settlements.
Sharon spoke of the security value of the settlements and the importance of a new highway that bisects the Samaria district, connecting Israel’s coastal plain with the Jordan Valley. Begin declined to make any comments to the unusually large press entourage that accompanied him on his visit, including six foreign and local television crews.
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