Several Hundred Mapam, Moked Members Set Up Campsite in Samarian Hills and Say They Will Not Leave U

Several hundred members of Mapam and Moked set up a campsite in the Samarian hills near the Kudun army camp yesterday and announced they would not leave until the authorities evacuated the 30-odd Gush Emunim families who were permitted to settle there during the Chanukah holidays last November under army protection.

About 50 Mapam and Moked youths remained on the barren hillside overnight. Food supplies and shelter were brought to them on foot after vehicles carrying supplies and equipment were turned back at army checkpoints on the West Bank.

The surprise move by members of the extreme “dove-ish” camp in Israeli politics was acknowledged by their spokesmen to be a protest against the government’s apparent acquiescence to illegal settlement attempts on the West Bank by the militantly Orthodox and nationalistic Gush Emunim. By copying the Gush Emunim method they hope to put a stop to it. The government cannot, without political embarrassment, force the Mapam and Moked campers to leave the West Bank while permitting the Gush to remain.

Dov Zakin, a Mapam MK, meanwhile charged that the government was spending funds without authorization to provide jobs for the Gush campers at Kudun and to set up the framework of a permanent settlement for them. Zakin claimed that vast sums of money were involved and urged the Speaker of the Knesset to bring up the matter before the Chamber.

Defense Minister Shimon Peres said last night that no decision had been taken yet to evacuate the Moked and Mapam campers near Kudun. He said a decision would be made at a later stage according to developments on the scene. Moked has threatened to stage protest demonstrations all over Israel until the Gush campers are removed from the West Bank.

Moked leader Meir Payil said it was inconceivable that a political group that acted in defiance of government policy should be given the protection and support of the army. He also assailed the government’s vacillation and indecision with regard to settlements in the administered territories.

The Moked and Mapam campers distributed leaflets to local Arab villagers explaining the nature of their protest. Some Arabs reportedly wanted to Join but were advised against doing so. The campers set up huge banners on the hillside reading “Gush Emunim Go Home,” “Kudun Settlers Undermine Peace,” and “Gush Emunim Endanger Democracy.”

CONFRONTATION BETWEEN TWO EXTREMES

The demonstration is essentially a confrontation between two extremes in Israeli society. The Gush are religious zealots who contend that the West Bank belongs to Israel by divine right and should therefore be open to unrestricted Jewish settlement. They are backed by hard-line nationalists of the right-wing and Orthodox political factions.

Mapam and Moked are leftist oriented, vigorously secular and regard the administered territories as temporary holdings that must eventually be returned to the Arabs in exchange for peace. According to their view, the establishment of permanent Jewish settlements in those territories only make the prospects for peace more remote.

Official government policy envisages a return of some of the administered territories–possibly the greater part of such areas as Sinal–but only in exchange for a formal peace pact with the Arabs that includes their recognition of Israel’s right to exist. The government has said, however that for security reasons Israel will never return to its pre-June, 1967 boundaries. The government of Premier Yitzhak Rabin has also pledged to hold a national referendum before agreeing to the return of any part of the West Bank to Arab sovereignty.