Setback for Advocates of Accelerated Settlement Building in the West Bank

Advocates of accelerated settlement building in the West Bank before the elections apparently suffered a setback when it became apparent today that the string of new settlements recently approved by the Government-World Zionist Organization Settlement Committee could not possibly get underway before Israelis go to the polls on July 23.

Likud MK Benny Shalita admitted this on a radio interview. He said that the committee’s decisions were valid because they reflected the basic policy of the government. But the actual building, he said, will have to wait until after the elections.

Settlement advocates are concerned that if a Laborled government is voted into office, Likud’s program of massive settlements in the occupied territories will be reversed. Labor Party policy calls for locating settlements on the basis of security needs and keeping them away from heavily Arab-populated areas.

FIERCE ARGUMENT ERUPTS

Shalita, who hopes a Likud victory will make the delay unimportant, spoke a day after a fierce argument erupted at a Settlement Committee meeting between Science Minister Yuval Neeman of the Tehiya Party, acting chairman of the committee, and Laborite Raanan Weitz, a co-chairman.

Weitz stormed out of the meeting after Neeman proposed two new privately built settlements in the Samaria region. He accused Neeman of “grabbing for settlements” in advance of the elections.

The committee did not approve Neeman’s projects, however, because the representative of the Justice Committee, Plia Albeck, said there are still legal doubts as to the ownership of the land in question. She was promptly attacked by Likud MK Michael Dekel, Deputy Minister of Agriculture, for “holding up” settlement activity.

II NEW SETTLEMENTS APPROVED

The committee has approved II new settlements during the past two weeks and Neeman is said to have several more on his agenda. But there are further obstacles to settlement building. Premier Yitzhak Shamir told representatives of the West Bank settlers this week that settlements will face the same budget ary constraints that apply to all other government activities.

Mattityahu Drobless, the Herut co-chairman of the WZO Settlement Committee, is energetically pressing Finance Minister Yigal Cohen-Orgad to allocate extra funds for the two new settlements proposed by Neeman.