Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, June 25, 1990 TAG: 9006250049
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: The New York Times
DATELINE: JERUSALEM LENGTH: Medium
The announcement came from Housing Minister Ariel Sharon, the government's most outspoken proponent of Jewish settlement in the occupied territories, in a speech to visiting Jewish leaders.
And it came less than a week after the prime minister's chief of staff said Israel would categorically refuse to make any such promise.
The prospect that large numbers of Soviet Jews would pour into the territories had prompted warnings by the Soviet Union it might restrict emigration and provoked expressions of displeasure from the United States.
Under current practice, Soviet Jewish immigrants as well as Israeli Jews have been free to settle where they want.
It was unclear after Sunday's announcement whether the Israeli government would actually try to prevent Jews who wanted to move to the occupied territories from doing so.
Nevertheless, the announcement is deemed significant because it is the first time the government has taken a public stand against settlement of immigrants in the territories.
Though Sharon did not say how Israel intended to stop Soviet Jews from moving to the West Bank, one way it could make it more difficult would be to stop paying such people the housing allowance of about $350 a month the government has been giving to immigrants.
In the last month, Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev has persistently warned he would curtail Jewish emigration to Israel if Israel did not pledge to keep the Soviet Jews from settling in the occupied lands.
The United States, too, has repeatedly voiced its opposition to Jewish settlement in the West Bank and Gaza.
As a result, officials said, the new government decided to put the considerable problems of bringing the Soviet Jews to Israel and then of giving them homes and jobs, ahead of their ideological commitment to settle Jews in the occupied lands.
"The building policy, according to the government, is to be implemented in every part of the land of Israel," said Sharon, who is also the government's coordinator of immigration affairs.
"But immigrants, due to the problems we have, will not be settled beyond the green line."
That line divides Israel from the occupied territories.
"We will not send any Jew who comes from Russia to Judea, Samaria or to Gaza because we understand the seriousness of the situation."
by CNB