Thirty acres of land at Elon Moreh were returned to their Arab owners yesterday without incident as the government complied with the Supreme Court’s Oct. 22 ruling that the Gush Emunim settlement was established illegally and must be removed within 30 days. The balance of 150 acres on which the settlement itself was built is to be evacuated in four to six weeks in accordance with a Cabinet decision last Sunday.
The army removed several installations on the 30 acres returned to the Arabs but the settlement’s buildings, all located in the larger area, remained untouched and the settlers are not leaving.
The 30 acres were the subject of an appeal to the high court by residents of Rujeib village. The bulk of the acreage did not figure in the appeal but Israel’s top legal authorities have ruled that it too is covered by the Supreme Court’s order. The Cabinet deferred the final evacuation to allow time for the government to prepare a new site for Elon Moreh at Djebil Kabir, about six miles away. Local Arabs are expected to petition the Supreme Court for the immediate eviction of the Jewish settlers.
GUSH LEADERSHIP SPLIT
The Gush Emunim leadership is split over whether to relinquish the balance of the land. A majority of the Gush secretariate claims that “conditions are not ripe yet” to evacuate the entire area. It is demanding that the government rush legislation that will permit the future seizure of Arab owned lands on the West Bank without interference from the high court.
Some Gush leaders have accused their strongest supporters in the government — Agriculture Minister Ariel Sharon of Likud and Education Minister Zevulun Hammer of the National Religious Party — of foot-dragging with respect to such measures.
A minority among the settlers appears willing to leave the site. They expressed satisfaction with a recent Cabinet decision to greatly expand Jewish settlement in the territory. They maintain that the new site selected for Elon Moreh in close enough to Nablus to satisfy the claim that Jews have a right to settle in the heart of Arab-populated territory.
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