Former Israeli Foreign Minister Moshe Dayan said today he opposed the decision by the Israeli Cabinet yesterday to establish religious institutions in two Jewish-owned buildings in Hebron. He said he has been and continues to be against moving Jewish settlers into the West Bank Arab town.
But he stressed to reporters that he would also be against any law passed by the Knesset that would bar Jews from settling anywhere on the West Bank. He said that would be a policy of advocating segregation.
Dayan, who resigned last October as Foreign Minister and is now an independent MK, spoke to reporters briefly after a private breakfast meeting with contributors to the United Jewish Appeal-Federation of Jewish Philanthropies Joint Campaign at the Regency Hotel here. He had just arrived in the United States for a three week speaking tour for the UJA as well as to deliver the Chubb Fellow Lectures at Yale University.
The former Foreign Minister declared that the Egyptian-Israeli peace treaty which will be one year old Wednesday is a “first class” treaty. He said the sections that deal with Egypt are being implemented with almost “no problems.”
Dayan said the proposals in the treaty for autonomy for the Palestinians on the West Bonk and Gaza Strip are “workable.” But he said the autonomy negotiations have not succeeded yet because the Palestinians and Jordan refuse to join the talks. Asked about British Foreign Secretary Lord Carrington’s recent statement that the Palestine Liberation Organization is not a terrorist group, Dayan replied, “This is not what they (the PLO) soy or do. ” He said the PLO is committed to the destruction of Israel.
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