The World - News from Aug. 23, 1985

A Knesset member charged that a state comptroller’s report shows that much of the land bought by Israelis in the occupied West Bank was obtained by “forgery, deceit, pressures and threats.” Yossi Sarid of the Labor Party said, “All this high-flown talk of ‘redeeming the land, Zionism and pioneering’ serves as a cover for corruption and cheating.” The report shows that 12,500 of 17,500 acres purchased by Jews from Arabs were obtained irregularly. Foreign Minister Yitzhak Shamir branded the investigation “a witch hunt.”