The Gush Emunim settlement of Kadum marked its first anniversary with a celebration Saturday night that lasted until daybreak yesterday. Among the thousands of persons who came to this Samarian settlement were Welfare Minister Zevulun Hammer, Chief Ashkenazic Rabbi Shlomo Goren, Likud leader Menachem Beigin, Ariel Sharon of Shlomzion and other members of the Knesset.
The settlers welcomed the guests in the cold clear December night with songs, dances and the lighting of a large Chanuka menorah. Goren said the presence of thousands at the celebration indicates that the victory of the Hashmonai has its spirit still alive in the people that come to settle in Israel and is imbued in the settlers of Kadum. He criticized the erosion in the belief that the Jewish people have the right to all of Eretz Israel.
Hammer’s presence at the ceremony may have widened the rift between Premier Yitzhak Rabin and the National Religious Party since the government is on record that the Kadum settlers must withdraw from the settlement which adjoins an army base in Samaria. The Kadum settlement resulted as a compromise between the government and supporters of the ultra-nationalist Gush Emunim movement after members of Gush Emunims ought to start an illegal settlement outside Nablus last Chanuka. In June the government offered the Kadum settlers alternative sites but they refused them.
Hammer said Saturday night his presence was legal since the government had approved it with the provision that it not be a permanent settlement. But on Friday, Justice Minister Haim Zadok said Kadum cannot receive any government assistance for housing or industry since the government has not approved Kadum as a settlement.
But Gush Emuntin has been developing Kadum as a permanent settlement. The settlers displayed the products they are manufacturing and claimed that they were selling them in the United States. Benni Katziwer, the representative of the settlers, said an electronics plant is about to be constructed and plans are being prepared for an urban center to provide homes for 10,000 people. Katziwer said it is expected that industry at Kadum will provide work for 60 percent of the population.
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