A group of about 100 Gush Emunim settlers formally inaugurated a makeshift village of prefabricated huts and trailer homes about 100 yards from the army camp at Kadum in the Samaria region yesterday and petitioned Premier Yitzhak Rabin to recognize it as a permanent settlement. The petition was signed by the Kadum settlers and hundreds of their supporters was came to the billy site yesterday to celebrate the occasion.
The news media was officially banned but some reporters and cameramen managed to get through the army cordon to witness the festivities. The press ban was indicative of the government’s extreme sensitivity on the matter. The Kadum settlement is one of the issues that touched off three weeks of violent disturbances and demonstrations by Arabs throughout the West Bank and in East Jerusalem.
It figures in the bitter debate now underway in the UN Security Council on the West Bank situation. Moreover, it is a matter that is polarizing opinion in Israel and subjecting Rabin’s government to bitter criticism from both supporters and opponents of the Gush Emunim.
The former demand a policy of free settlement for Jews anywhere on the West Bank. The latter, including former Foreign Minister Abba Eban and many incumbent Cabinet ministers, feel the government has failed to crack down on the illegal settlers whose presence on the West Bank is in direct defiance of national policy.
Tourism Minister Moshe Kol, leader of the Independent Liberal Party, declared yesterday that the Kadum settlers were rebels who were flouting the government’s authority. Kol spoke at the inauguration of a new settlement on the Golan Heights sponsored by the ILP.
The Kadum settlers came to the Samaria region as squatters last November. The government reluctant to order troops to remove them by force, struck a bargain with the militant Orthodox Gush Emunim whereby 30 families were allowed to remain within the bounds of the Kadum military camp. Subsequently, they were permitted to settle outside the camp’s perimeter on land controlled by the army.
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
