About 200 militant settlers who seized a hill top north of Jerusalem Sunday, returned to their homes yesterday apparently satisfied that their action had spurred the government to speed up its plans to build a new town on the West Bank site. Representatives of the group and of the settlers regional council, met with Premier Menachem Begin today.
He promised them that building would commence in three months. The plans for the new town, known as Givon, have been submitted to the Military Government’s zoning committee. Pinhas Wallerstein, chairman of the regional council, said working procedures have already been agreed on with the government.
The settlers’ unauthorized occupation of the hill sparked an angry exchange between Housing Minister David Levy who insisted that they evacuate and Agriculture Minister Ariel Sharon who supported the illegal action. Levy maintained that settlers should not be allowed to dictate policy to the government and denied their charges that his ministry was moving too slowly to build the new town.
Sharon, who heads the Ministerial Settlement Committee, has been urging the government to act with utmost speed to plant new settlements on the West Bank before the elections this spring that could bring the Labor Party into power and with it a more moderate settlement policy.
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