A special meeting of the Cabinet today, presided over by Prime Minister David Ben Gurion, voted to relax some of the military regulations concerning Arabs in Israel, permitting the Arabs to move about the country freely for purposes of engaging in employment, education, trade or public service.
However, a five-man committee of Ministers recommended unanimously that security requires continuation of military control in Arab areas along the frontiers of the Arab states. The committee declared that among parts of the Arab population on the borders there are “elements dangerous to the security of the State. “
The Ministers expressed the hope, however, that periodic review of the border situation may lead, gradually, to complete liquidation of the military government, and pointed out that such a development “depends on the attitudes of the neighboring states. “
According to the committee, infiltration must still be guarded against on the borders, as well as the danger of seizure of state lands. Lands in Galilee must be preserved for additional agricultural settlements for new immigrants, the committee pointed out.
Among the Cabinet recommendations adopted today are decisions to speed the settlement of evacuated and refugee Arabs and the payment of compensation for Arab land.
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