A Cabinet majority decided today to authorize the establishment of a new Gush Emunim settlement adjacent to Nablus, the largest Arab town on the West Bank. By a vote of 8-5, it over-rode an appeal against the decision by Deputy Premier Yigael Yadin who was supported by Defense Minister Ezer Weizman, Foreign Minister Moshe Dayan and his two Democratic Movement colleagues Shmuel Tamir and Yisrael Katz. Finance Minister Simcha Ehrlich and Minister of Commerce and Industry Gideon Patt abstained.
Fencing off of land for the settlement is expected to begin this week. Yadin, who had voiced his opposition earlier to the Ministerial Settlement Committee, argued that the land allocated for the new settlement was privately owned by Arabs and noted that government policy here to fore has excluded expropriation of private land except for security needs. (By Gil Sedan)
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