Deputy Premier Yigael Yadin walked out of the Cabinet meeting yesterday when his colleagues refused to reconsider a decision by the ministerial committee on settlements, while he was in the United States, to establish four new Jewish settlements in the West Bank. Yadin, who is a member of the committee, returned later after an appeal by Premier Menachem Begin. However, the Cabinet’s action on the decision was postponed.
Yadin’s Democratic Party feels that no new settlements should be established while the peace negotiations are in process. He reportedly charged that the ministerial committee’s decision violated an earlier decision that for the present the government would only thicken existing settlement. Yadin said he would continue his appeal at the next Cabinet meeting. Agriculture Minister Ariel Sharon, head of the ministerial committee, said that preparations for the four settlements would also continue. Yadin said today that if the matter is not resolved to his satisfaction “I will understand the implications of the situation.”
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