Israel’s plans to establish four new settlements on the West Bank and to build a new road through administered Jordanian territory linking Jerusalem with the Beisan Valley, were disclosed yesterday to journalists on a Jewish National Fund tour of the region. Meir Shamir, director of the JNF’s land development authority, said the new settlements will lie parallel to the existing front line of Israeli outposts.
He said the 55-mile road would be located west of the present road and would be on high ground out of sight of Jordanian positions on the east bank of the Jordan River. He said the land allocated for the new settlements had always been property of the state; first the Turks, then the British, and latterly Jordan. He described the settlements as a mixture of Nahal, paramilitary outposts, kibbutzim and moshavim, small-holders settlements.
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