Israeli Attorney General Denies Opening of Heights Court is Step Toward Annexation

Israel’s Attorney General Meir Shamgar said here yesterday that the opening of a magistrate’s court in the Golan Heights next Monday does not constitute a move toward annexation of that Israel-occupied former Syrian territory. Speaking on a television program, Mr. Shamgar said the court was necessary because there was no court system in the Golan Heights when Israeli forces captured it during the Six-Day War. He observed that the situation was different on the West Bank and the Gaza Strip where courts, judges and law books were found.

Inauguration of the court at Kuneitra, the largest town in the Golan Heights, will mean the replacement of Syria’s legal code by Israeli law. Opening ceremonies will be attended by Israel’s Minister of Justice, Yakov Shapiro and other ministers, Members of Parliament and Israeli dignitaries. It will be more than a routine event and observers here expect it to raise new outcries in the Arab world. Mr. Shamgar said the court was a practical measure required to settle land disputes, property claims and other legal matters among the 6,000 Druze who still inhabit the area. Tens of thousands of Syrian and Druze villagers who once lived in the Golan Heights fled as Israeli troops advanced.

Mr. Shamgar’s assurances are not considered likely to avert Arab charges of annexation by Israel. Of the Arab territories seized during the war, Israel has annexed only East Jerusalem and a strip outside the city once known as the Jerusalem Corridor. But Israel has already established settlements in the Golan Heights and is planning to have at least two dozen with a population of 12,000 there by 1973. Israeli officials have said that apart from Jerusalem all territorial issues with the Arabs are negotiable. But several Israeli leaders have stated on more than one occasion that the Golan Heights was vital to Israel’s security and would not be given up.