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44 Pages
Thursday, December 12, 1991 Tevet 5, 5752
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JERUSALEM (JTA)-
Israel's Cabinet decided Sunday that Jewish settlers may remain in the Arab village of Silwan, as long as they can prove ownership of real estate in the Jerusalem enclave.
The decision, which goes against the advice of Attorney General Yosef Harish, appears to open the way for massive Jewish settlemeht in all parts of Jerusalem, including neighborhoods heavily populated by Arabs. ' While settlers applauded themove, critics voiced concern that it could have negative repercussions for the bilateral Arab-Israeli peace talks which were scheduled to resume in Washington on Tuesday.
The Cabinet decision came in the wake of a new spate of-stone-throwing attacks in the West Bank, Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem. Four Israeli-owned vehicles were set on fire in East Jerusalem within a two-hour period Friday.
The Cabinet's decision related specifically to Silwan village, an intifada hot spot within Jerusalem's municipal boundaries at the foot of : the Temple Mount.
On Oct. 9,401 Jewish families clandestinely occupied five Arab houses there, claiming legal ownership.
Threats of possible violence from local Arab residents caused the police to intervene. They evacuated most of the squatters. But a group of settlers was permitted to remain, pending investigation of the legal status of their claim.
They occupied a building known as Meyouhas House, named after a Jewish family said to have owned it before the Arab riots of 1929.
Attorney General Harish, the government's, chief legal adviser, recommended Nov. 26 that the settlers be removed because Arab unrest arising from their presence could spread all over Jerusalem.
The Cabinet, in effect, dismissai that warning when it announced Sunday that any Jew who could prove ownership of real estate in Silwan had a right to remain there.
It instructed the Jerusalem police to "ensure the safety of all the residents of Silwan."
A stampede of Jewish settlers is expected to follow, laying claim to property ia what has until now been
exclusively Arab neighborhoods; That, in fact, niay be the intention of
Housing Minister Ariel Sharon, a Likud hard-liner who owns an apartment in the Muslim Quarter of the
Old City.
News of the Cabinet's announcement took the squatters by surprise. All were away from the premises at the time:, but they quickly returned.
"It is a natural and just decision," said Avi Maoz, a leaider of The local settlers group. He expressed surprise that the police would even consider depriving Jewish settlers of their "lawful rights."
He was echoed by Likud Knesset members Michael Eitan and Tzahi Hanegbi, who have been active on behalf j)f the settlers. According to Eitan, any other decision by the Cabinet would have compromised Israel's sovereignty over Jerusalem and been interpreted as a surrender to Arab terrorism.
But Knesset members Yossi Sarid and Ran Cohen of the leftist Citizens Rights Movement called the decision yet another "dangerous surrender to the political hooliganism of the extreme right."
They accused the government of appeasing the settlers "at the expense of seicurity in Jerusalem and at the ex-
pense of the rule of law."
Amnon Rubinstein of Centre-Shinui Movement said the decision would force the police to maintain a continuous state of emergency in Silwan and would ftirther harm Israel's political standing abroad.
In yet another concession to settlers, Defence Minister Moshe Arens agreed Sunday to allow a group of 10 to 15 women to live in tents on the site of what he had earlier declared a Nahal paramilitary outpost in the Samaria region of the West Bank, south of Nablus. -
The site^s where two Israelis, Rachel Druck and Yitzhak Rofeh, were killed in a bus ambush Oct. 28. The Inner Cabinet approved a new settlement there on Nov. 27, named Rachelim, in memory of Druck.
Settlers established themselves there on Dec. 2 in three mobile homes:
But the government, concerned with world ojpinion at a time it was quarrelling with the United States over the date and place of peace talks, backed off to the extent of declaring the settlement to be military for the time being.-
The settlers hauled away their mobile homes but retained a foothold.
Israel ready to talk
WASHINGTON (JTA) -
Israel's 30-member delegation arrived in Washington on Sunday for talks which were scheduled to begin Tuesday morning with the Palestinians , Jordan, Syria and Lebanon.
"We come here with an open heart and intention to negotiate with our neighbors," saidYossi Ben-Aharon, director general of the Israeli Prime Minister's Office, who is heading the team that will negotiate with Syria.
While reiterating that Israel would prefer the talks to be taking place in the Middle East, Ben-Aharon said Israel is ready to discuss all issues, whether procedural or substantive.
The United States originally invited Israel and the Arab delegations to open talks in Washington on Dec. 4. Israel, which had insisted on a Middle East venue, balked at what it considered U.S. pressure to conform.
The Israelis said they would show up on Dec. 9. But the Palestinians,
who dutifully appeared Dec. 4 at the State Department meeting site, re-ftised to come on Monday, which was the fourth anniversary of the start of the intifada.
After a considerable amount of jockeying, the two sides agreed to meet Tuesday.
But a few snags have emerged that could complicate the talks.
Israel is refusing to negotiate with the Palestinian delegation if it includes Dr. Saeb Erekat, who announced before the Oct. 30 opening of the peace conference in Madrid that he considered himself an.appoin-tee of the Palestine Liberation Organization.
Israel has advised the State Department that it will not take part in the talks if Erekat is part of the official joint Jordanian-Palestinian delegation.
"If he is there, we are not there," the Israeli spokesman said.
Renowned Nazi hunter Beate Klarsfeld was arrested Saturday by the Damascus police. Here she is shown in Maiden, Mass. in 1990 at the arraignment of Holocaust revisionist Fred Leuchter. [RNS Photo/Reuters]
PARIS (JTA)^
French Nazi-huhter BeaTe Klarsfeld was taken into custody in Damascus on Saturday morning and placed under house arrest in her hotel room.
Klarsfeld, who with her- husband. Serge, helped bring Klaus Barbie and other Nazi war criminals to justice, was seized by Damascus police outside the Interior Ministry.
She was demonstrating there against the continued haven Syria has given Alois Brunner, one of the last of the major Nazi war criminals still at large.
The German-bom Klarsfeld was also protesting Syria's denial of civil rights to its Jewish community, which is prevented from emigrating.
At CJNpress time, she was still in her hotel room. A ranking Interior-Ministry official reportedly promised that he was "trying to get her a meeting with an important Syrian personality," to whom she could express her concern over Brunner and the treatment of Syrian Jews.
Klarsfeld entered Syria last Thursday with admittedly questionable documents. Her husband has been able to speak to her by telephone from Paris.
The -Syrians are reportedly trying quietly to rid themselves of Brunner, who is alleged to have lived in Damascus for more than 30 years.
He occupied a villa on George Haddad Street under the name of Georg Fisher. But on Oct. 15, he was reported to have disappeared.
The Syrian authorities are said to be trying to ease him out of the country in stages, by taking him first to a less visi- -ble location. They are said to have already produced a sheaf of forged documents to prove that Brunner, alias Fisher, never lived at the villa.
Brunner, 79, was sentenced to death in absentia by a French court in 1954 for
premeditated murders and torture. As an SS officer, he commanded the Drancy internment cenUe near Nazi-occupied Paris, where Jews and others were kept temporarily beforeV deportation to death camps in Eastent Europe. . He also was responsible for deporting the entire Jewish community of Salonika, Greece, few members of which survived. Brunner continued deporting Jews from France even after the Allied landings in Normandy in June 1944.
Like many other major war.criminals, he managed to evade punishment after the collapse of the Third Reich a year later and found not only refuge but welcome in Syria.
The Damascus government has persisted, however, in denying his presence, and repeated French requests for extradition have gone unheeded. ^ ^
: Due to the holiday period, there will be no issue of January 2, and we will be going to press early with the issue of December 26.
The editorial deadline for the December 26 issue is Friday, December 13.
Advertising deadlines for the issue of December 26 are as follows: Organizations and Classified, Friday, December 13 at noon; Display, Monday, December 16 at noon.
Doctor loses battle with cancer
Pages
Inside
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Israel's trade status uncertain
An Interview
Moshe Gur
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