Cabinet Agrees on Stronger Measures to Maintain Law and Order in Occupied Territories

The Cabinet agreed unanimously today on stronger measures to maintain law and order in the occupied territories and immediately drew a skeptical response from Jewish settlers.

The “Guidelines for imposing law and order in Judaea, Samaria and Gaza” make it clear that only “the security branches” will deal with and impose law and order in those territories and no others would be allowed to act. Anyone who violates that directive will be punished, the Cabinet resolution stated. This appeared to be an oblique warning that the government will not tolerate vigilanteism on the part of the Jewish settlers.

The guidelines also promised that harsher measures would be taken against anyone throwing stones or Mootov cocktails at Israeli military personnel or civilians, a warning aimed primarily at Arabs. Israeli security forces in the territories will be strengthened, the Cabinet said.

Spokesmen for Jewish settlements in the territories said there was nothing new in the Cabinet’s decision. The question remains how it will be implemented in practice, they said. They wanted to know what measures will be taken to impose law and order and what means of self-defense the settlers will be allowed. They demanded that a definition of “self-defense” be incorporated in the guidelines. According to the settlers, existing directives on the use of fire arms by the settlers are unclear.

KARP REPORT TO BE PUBLISHED THIS WEEK

Meanwhile, the Karp report on the difficulties of imposing law on the Jewish settlements in the territories is scheduled to be published this Tuesday by the government.

The report, prepared by Deputy Attorney General Yehudit Karp, charged that Jewish settlers failed to cooperate in the prosecution of Jewish violaters, that there was poor intelligence work, poor liaison between civil and military authorities in the territories and a general shortage of manpower to ensure law and order.