In a surprise move last night several hundred members of the Hapoel Mizrachi, the labor wing of the orthodox Zionists, erected three new colonies near Jerusalem in an area where Jews are prohibited from purchasing land under the White Paper of 1939.
The action, which followed the pattern of “Operation Land” of eleven days ago, when 12 colonies were established in the Negev within the space of one night, is not expected to be contested by the authorities because the land on which the settlements will be built was purchased by the Jewish National Fund prior to 1939. The first official notification the government received was a communication this morning telling it that the colonies had been established.
A Jewish Telegraphic Agency correspondent who this morning visited one of the new settlements situated near the peaks of the Hebron Hills found the settlers, most of whom are about 20 years old, busy laying the foundations for a communal dining hall and watch towers. They arrived last night with several trucks on which they had loaded two pre-fabricated houses and their personal belongings.
Residents of a neighboring Arab village, who at first complained of all the traffic that was passing through their settlement, agreed when the situation was explained to them to help level a road which skirted the village to accommodate the Jewish traffic. Later they paid a ceremonial visit to the site of the new settlement, voicing good wishes for its success.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
