Thousands Demonstrate in Favor of Building More Settlements

The contentious issue of settlements in the Israeli-administered territories flared again, as thousands of Gush Emunim supporters gathered Tuesday night in Tel Aviv to call for a renewed settlement drive.

The demonstration raised the tension level once more between Labor and Likud, whose opposing policies on the settlements are now focused on the Finance Ministry, led now by Labor Party leader Shimon Peres.

As thousands of demonstrators filled Malchei Yisrael Square in Tel Aviv, Peres declared categorically that “the Likud would not get an extra shekel for settlements.”

Peres was reacting to threats by the Likud that it would agree to write off the huge debts of the kibbutzim only if the Treasury allocates another 80 million shekels ($45 million) for the settlements.

Last week, the government and the banks agreed to write off and reschedule four billion shekels ($2.25 billion) of the kibbutzim’s debt, as part of a wide-ranging recovery program.

But Peres countered that he was “not afraid of Likud.” Any additional settlement budget, he said, should have been asked for before the new budget was presented to the Knesset.

Many settlers say the Likud-led government, which has professed to support new settlements, is not sympathetic enough to settlement efforts.

The demonstrators Tuesday called for the government to “hit the PLO with eight new settlements,” referring to the Palestine Liberation Organization’s stated intent to establish an independent Palestinian state in the territories.

At the end of the rally, a group of settlers set off toward the territories in a motorcade of eight vans, in an attempt to set up an illegal settlement at Talmon, in the Ramallah region.

The settlers eventually erected some tents on the site, but the army closed off the area Wednesday and demanded that the settlers evacuate the region.