The Labor Party leadership emerged this week in near-agreement from its fifth meeting on the future policy in the territories. Meeting at Premier Golda Meir’s office here, the ministers went a long way toward Defense Minister Moshe Dayan’s demands for a working program in the territories. A final meeting on the subject is scheduled within the next several days to adopt the lines suggested in a working paper, composed by Minister Israel Galili, which is close to Dayan’s ideas.
The meeting focused on two areas of disagreement in past sessions–the creation of the city of Yamit in the Gaza area and land sales beyond the Green Line. It was agreed to bring Yamit into being in a series of phases over a number of years. It was also agreed to enlarge the proposed urban center from the original 350 housing units to 900. Dayan is reported to have suggested 1000 housing units.
The Labor leaders also agreed in principle that a team of experts should look into Dayan’s proposal for setting up a deep sea port on the northern Sinai coast. Dayan has compromised on the timetable, conceding that the deep sea port could wait until the later stages of developing a town that will serve as a strategic outpost blocking the vacant land space between the eventual Egyptian border and Gaza.
FORMULA FOR LAND SALES.
The formula on the land sales issue was somewhere midway between Dayan’s demands for wider margin of private trading and the government-controlled sales proposed by Justice Minister Yaacov Shimshon Shapiro. It is now agreed that the State Lands Authority will acquire land beyond the Green Line as a general rule.
However, in cases where the Lands Authority is either not able or not interested in completing a land transaction, private individuals will be allowed to make the purchase. But according to the agreement between the Labor ministers there will be strict limitations based on political considerations and efforts to prevent speculation.
Finance Minister Pinhas Sapir agreed last week to find monies in four annual allocations for Dayan’s proposals in the territories. These include an Arab refugee rehabilitation program and development projects in the areas, aimed at creating sources of work there to reduce local pressure to find work in Israel.
The funds for Jewish settlement in the territories, it was pointed out, would come from other sources. It is also understood that Dayan’s demands for a Jewish housing settlement in the Arab village of Nebi Samwil, north of Jerusalem, had also been accepted.
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