The first families to inhabit Mesha, a new settlement some seven kilometers east of the “Green Line” near Petach Tikva, moved to the site today with official blessing. The families are the spearhead of a Gush Emunim settlement group which has long campaigned to be allowed to settle the area and recently won the approval of the Ministerial Settlement Committee headed by Minister-Without-Portfolio Yisrael Galili.
A nahal unit has been preparing the ground for the past several weeks. The area is sparsely populated and is considered close enough to the old border to be within the “minor rectifications” that Israel has in mind along that border, especially at its narrowest stretch near the center of the country. Gush Emunim says it has some 500 people on the Mesha waiting list, but the Housing Ministry told newsmen it has a budget for only 15 families at present.
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