Israel Closes Jewish Settlers’ West Bank Paper

Israeli Defense Minister Yitzhak Rabin on Wednesday ordered the closing of a West Bank newspaper for Jewish settlers because, he said, it incited its readers to revolt against the government.

The paper, Aleph Yud, published an article last Sunday predicting the outbreak of a civil war if the authorities try to give up any of the territory Israel captured in the Six-Day War of 1967.

The newspaper’s editor, Yaakov Rahamim, said in an interview that the article was meant to warn, not incite.

The defense minister’s action was the first concrete response by the government to a series of statements by settlers this week urging organized resistance to any Mideast peace offer that would mean dilution of Israeli sovereignty in the occupied territories.

Heavily Outnumbered

About 45,000 Jewish settlers live among 1.2 million Arabs on the West Bank and Gaza Strip. The settlers are scattered among more than 100 different locations ranging from remote encampments to large bedroom communities near Jerusalem and Tel Aviv.

Most of the settlers favor Israeli annexation of the occupied territories, and they deeply distrust Prime Minister Shimon Peres’ efforts to begin direct negotiations with Jordan. They fear that Peres will trade West Bank land or at least sovereignty over the territories for a peace treaty.

A major organization, the Council of Settlers from Judea, Samaria and Gaza, said after a marathon meeting Monday night that peace proposals attributed to Peres are illegal and “tantamount to doing away with the state of Israel as a Zionist Jewish state.”

“Going the way the prime minister dictates will lead, with no way back, to the splitting of the people,” council leader Otniel Schneller said. “If such a danger is liable to lead to a civil war . . . it would be worthwhile for Peres to reconsider his decisions.”

The council announced plans for a “nonviolent civil rebellion” to back up its views, beginning with an information and petition campaign. Settlers will be asked to sign a statement declaring, “Any government that hands over territory to the enemy will be considered illegal in my eyes, and I will not recognize it.”

Peres Is Adamant

Peres, speaking Wednesday in Parliament, blasted the settlers’ council for “presumption, intimidation and deception” and totally rejected their statements.

Rabin moved against Aleph Yud after Israeli Atty. Gen. Yitzhak Zamir charged that the newspaper was being published without the required license. Zamir said authorities might have given the publisher time to apply for a license except that he was suspected of a “serious offense” against both military orders and penal code restrictions, provisions that bar incitement and hostile propaganda. He said he has asked the police to investigate the incident.

The charges centered on an article written under the pseudonym “M. Ben-Yisrael,” particularly on a section concerning settler reaction to any Israeli territorial concessions, which reads:

“There will be more than one who will say, ‘over my dead body,’ and will act accordingly. Everyone will prepare himself psychologically to stand firm in Judea and Samaria (the biblical names for the West Bank) and lift up his hand and his weapon against his brother. . . . We might be witness to a very frightening spectacle--wide-ranging underground activity, . . . rebellion in the army, sabotage of the (work of) the security services, armed rebellion inside the West Bank and in the end, war between Jews and Jews.”

Editor Rahamim said the author of the article, who chooses to remain anonymous, is not one of the settlement leaders. He said the article was published because “I really believe that there could be civil war if Shimon Peres attempts to give back parts of Judea and Samaria.”

Aleph Yud, a tabloid, is distributed free in half a dozen West Bank settlements and claims a biweekly circulation of 10,000.

Right-wing members of Parliament said Wednesday that while they do not condone calls for armed uprising, they favor a fight by all legal means against giving up sovereignty over the occupied territories. Left-wing lawmakers called for more drastic action against those who incite, including banishment from the West Bank.