Former Premier David Ben-Gurion proposed in Parliament today that a belt of Jewish settlements should be established around the former Old City of Jerusalem as part of a program of intensive Jewish settlement of the area. He spoke during the debate on Foreign Minister Abba Eban’s report on foreign policy.
He also proposed that the Hebrew University should transfer at least half of its facilities to the former campus on Mount Scopus, which was abandoned when Jordan seized the Old City and its environs in the 1948 war. A small maintenance unit remained on the Mount Scopus enclave which was serviced by a twice-a-month convoy from Israel during the 19 years until Israel took the area in the June war. Mr. Ben-Gurion urged also that housing should be established on Mount Scopus for teachers and students.
(In London, the British Friends of the Hebrew University issued a statement declaring that Israel’s recovery of the Mount Scopus area offered an opportunity for further development of the university’s facilities but that full advantage of the opportunity could be taken only if societies of friends of the university throughout the world would contribute an additional 3,000,000 Israel pounds ($1,000,000) to the university’s working budget. The statement was signed by Lord Cohen of Walmer, Dr. Alec Lerner and Prof. Norman Bentwich.)
Mr. Ben-Gurion proposed also that at least 20,000 Jewish families should settle in the former Jewish quarter of Old Jerusalem which the Jordanians destroyed and in the empty areas around the Old City which have been incorporated into the reunited Jerusalem. He said his proposed belt of Jewish population would contribute to the raising of the standard of living of Arab residents of the area.
He emphasized that plans to give “Jewry’s eternal capital” a Jewish character should not be done by evicting the Arab population “not even one soul.” He urged also that the Kalandria airport, on the site of the former Jewish village of Etarot, which was incorporated in the enlarged capital, should be developed as an international airport. He said his proposals were based on the idea that Jerusalem should be a bustling commercial and industrial center and the capital of Israel not only in name.
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