About 20,000 people demonstrated here last night. against proposals now before the government to settle Jews in the West Bank Arab town of Hebron. The demonstration was the first instance of cooperation between Peace Now activists and representatives of the city’s poverty neighborhoods. Similar rallies took place in Tel Aviv and Haifa, the latter marked by an outpouring of kibbutz members from the entire northern region of Israel.
Yemin Swissa, a leader of Jerusalem’s low income Katamon quarter, charged that “While thousands of couples have no home to live in, David Levy, the leader of the poor, proposes to settle Hebron.” The sarcastic reference was to Housing Minister David Levy who is one of the leading advocates of populating Hebron with Jews. Swissa also accused the government of pouring money into settlements on the West Bank that could better be used to rehabilitate slum neighborhoods. At the Haifa rally, writer A. B. Yehoshua called for “resistance by force” if the government decides to settle Jews in Hebron.
Meanwhile, Mayor Teddy Kollek of Jerusalem repeated his strong criticism of the government’s expropriation of some 1000 acres of land in East Jerusalem to build housing project for Jews. The land lies between the Jewish quarters of Neve Yaacov and French Hill. Kollek said that the project would cost some IL 30 billion out of a national budget of IL 405 billion.
Kollek also accused the government of developing settlements on the West Bank instead of Jerusalem. While he is not opposed in principle to the planned housing project, he has argued that the land expropriation order signed last week was ill-timed and on unnecessary, provocative gesture since the resources to build the housing is not now available. Meanwhile, the Cabinet postponed again a discussion of the Hebron issue.
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