The Cabinet, meeting in emergency session tonight, decided to remove the illegal settlement established by about 70 Gush Emunim followers on a hilltop near Nablus today. A communique released after the meeting said there was no room for any settlements not approved by the government and warned that such settlements will be removed.
The Cabinet convened as a ministerial security committee with the participation of Foreign Minister Moshe Dayan and Defense Minister Ezer Weizman only hours after their return from the U.S. The meeting was called urgently to deal with the Gush attempt to plant the new settlement in the Samaria region of the West Bank in defiance of the government and in contravention of Premier Menachem Begin’s undertaking in the Camp David agreements that no new settlements will be established in occupied territories while peace negotiations are in progress.
The Cabinet’s decision apparently means that the army will be ordered to remove the settlers, by force if necessary. The Gush, infuriated by Begin’s agreements at Camp David, took over an 1800-foot peak east of Nablus early today, raised the Israeli flag, and declared that they were forming a new settlement called Alon Moreh, after a Biblical site in the region. They vowed to resist any attempts to remove them.
The army declared the area a military zone and blocked all roads to prevent the infiltration of additional settlers while awaiting orders. The steep approaches to the hill makes it difficult to remove the settlers in vehicles. The army is expected to use helicopters to evacuate them.
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
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.
