The Knesset voted 58-54 today to approve “in all its parts” the statement by Premier Menachem Begin at the opening of its summer session yesterday. The statement included a declaration that Israeli settlements will never again be removed, even in the context of peace treaties with Arab countries, and that El Al, Israel’s national airline, will cease Sabbath flights within three months.
Begin also stated, in his speech yesterday, that Israel intends to lay claim to the West Bank and Gaza Strip after the five-year autonomy transition period. Today, he denounced the opposition Labor Party for applying a “double standard” to settlements. Labor is opposed to Jewish settlements in heavily Arab populated areas.
Begin claimed today that there was no difference between the 38 Jewish settlements his government has established on the West Bank and the Labor Kibbutz Hanita established in Galilee in the 1940s when that region was predominantly Arab.
The other elements of Begin’s statement approved today were non-controversial. One was an announcement that Aharon Uzan, the No. 2 man of the Tami faction, will take over as Minister of Labor, Welfare and Absorption. Tami leader Aharon Abu-Hatzeira resigned those portfolios pending the outcome of his appeal against his conviction last month on charges of larceny and fraud.
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