The Cabinet today lifted a 12-year ban on the purchase of private land in the administered territories by Israeli citizens. The Cabinet acted on a proposal by Premier Menachem Begin. A government spokesman said afterwards that the ban is now outdated “Israelis have been permitted to buy land everywhere but Judaea, Samaria and Gaza since 1967 and we feel this is now ludicrous and outdated,” he said.
The Cabinet decision was unanimous and a ministerial committee will work out the details of how sales are to be made, he added The underlying assumption of the proposal is that in the future, private citizens who may wish to purchase land will be able to do so subject to government guidelines. This would not, however, permit unauthorized settlement projects camouflaged as land purchases.
YADIN LOSES ROUND ON SETTLEMENTS APPEAL
At the same time, the Cabinet rejected an appeal by Deputy Permier Yigael Yadin against the establishment of two new settlements–Rehan and Dotan–in Samaria Thus, Yadin lost the first round of the present controversy with Agriculture Minister Ariel Sharon over the settlements.
Last week, Yadin charged that Sharon mislead the government by establishing new settlements, contrary to an earlier decision merely to “expand” existing settlements. The argument with Sharon developed into a bitter personal conflict between the two ministers, with Yadin walking out of last week’s Cabinet session in demand for an immediate discussion of the issue.
The discussion ended when Yadin was given the right to appeal the establishment of the new settlements. Only the three Democratic Party ministers voted in Favor of the appeal. Foreign Minister Moshe Dayan abstained. The Knesset Security and Foreign Affairs Committee is scheduled to meet an this issue tomorrow, but there is little doubt that Yadin’s appeal will be defeated there, too.
ANOTHER APPEAL REJECTED
In a related issue today, the Supreme Court rejected the appeal of the mukhtar of the Arab village of Anata against the establishment of the second Maale Adumim settlement on the eastern outskirts of Jerusalem. The judges–Itzhak Kahan, Miriam Ben Porat and Meir Shamgar–ruled that the appeal was phrased in a “misleading” fashion, and saw no reason to approve on injunction against the seizure of the land there.
The appeal claimed that the State had seized some 1750 acres privately owned for the purpose of the new settlement But the State argued that only 750 acres were seized–all State-owned. Only a small 60-acre plot was privately owned, said the counsel for the State, but there was no intention to seize it.
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