The nationalist opposition to the present Labor-led government fired on Thursday what it called “the first shot in the battle for Eretz Yisrael,” holding a large demonstration in downtown Jerusalem.
The demonstration was timed to coincide with Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin’s departure later that night for the United States.
Police estimated that some 8,000 people crowded into Menorah Square to hear leaders of all the opposition parties in the Knesset — with the exception of Agudath Yisrael, which is teetering between joining the coalition and opposing it — rail against building restrictions on the West Bank and in Gaza.
“Cry the Beloved Country,” Rehavam Ze’evi, the Moledet Party leader, told the crowd. He accused the government of conducting its settle- ment policy “in order to please the boss in Washington and the murderer in Tunis,” the latter being a reference to Palestine Liberation Organization leader Yasir Arafat, who is based in Tunis.
Rafael Eitan of Tsomet compared Housing Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer with Neville Chamberlain, the former British prime minister who was an author of a “white paper” forbidding Jewish settlement in parts of Palestine.
Gush Emunim leaders promised further demonstrations during Rabin’s week-long stay in the United States. They also hinted at the possibility that the party will initiate new — and potentially illegal — settlement efforts in the territories.
On a local level, meanwhile, leaders of three right-wing factions in the Jerusalem municipal council joined ranks Thursday to launch an unprecedented, sharply-worded attack against Mayor Teddy Kollek and his attempts to put a halt to Jewish settlements within Arab population blocs in East Jerusalem.
This new development followed the announcement two days earlier by Police Minister Moshe Shahal that students of the Ateret Cohanim yeshiva — who two years ago had taken over two buildings in the Moslem Quarter of the old city — were residing there unlawfully.
The buildings had been confiscated in 1990 from their Arab owners “for security purposes.” With the help of the housing ministry, the yeshiva students and their families subsequently took over the buildings.
Shahal maintained that as long as the buildings did not serve their original owners, they could only be used by Israeli officials for security purposes.
The heads of the right-wing factions were also irritated by Kollek’s statement that he would no longer sign demolition orders on illegal buildings in East Jerusalem. Kollek cited the government’s failure to provide the Arab population with adequate housing opportunities.
The right-wing leaders announced at a press conference here Wednesday that they were forming a new bloc that would be composed of representatives from Likud, Shas and the National Religious Party.
Knesset Member Hanan Porat of the NRP said that despite all of Teddy Kollek’s accomplishments over the years, the very fact that he systematically opposed Jewish settlements in East Jerusalem meant that he ought not to serve as Jerusalem’s mayor.
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