Report on Israeli Settlement in the Occupied Territories

Nineteen years ago Menachem Begin defeated Shimon Peres, becoming Israel's first Likud prime minister. One of Begin's first official acts was to travel to Elon Moreh, a rough Israeli settlement perched on a hilltop outside Nablus. There, among the faithful, Begin proclaimed victory on behalf of the proponents of Greater Israel.

The Labor-led governments of Yitzhak Rabin and Shimon Peres have bequeathed to the Netanyahu government a settlement infrastructure more secure and sustainable than Labor had inherited in July 1992.

In its first meeting after the Netanyahu victory, YESHA, the umbrella organization representing settlements throughout the occupied territories, drew up a wish list for action by the new government...

Ariel Sharon, a cabinet member in the new government, is to have as yet undefined powers on central aspects of land and settlement policy. The following report appeared in Ha'aretz on May 21, 1996.

The following guidelines were approved by all of the constituent parties represented in the Cabinet headed by Benyamin Netanyahu.