Israel Won’t Push on Soviet Settlers : Immigration: Sharon seeks to defuse criticism from Washington and Moscow. No special effort will be made to place the newcomers in the West Bank or Gaza.

Israel moved to calm an international storm over the flow of Soviet immigrants to Israel by promising Sunday to make no special effort to settle them in the disputed West Bank and Gaza Strip.

The announcement was made by Ariel Sharon, the new housing minister and a leading hawk in the government of Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir.

“As far as the immigrants are concerned, they will not be settled, because of the problems we have, beyond the Green Line,” Sharon said, referring to the 1967 border that separated Israel from what was then Jordanian territory. “We do not send any Russian immigrant or any Jew who comes from Russia” to the disputed land, Sharon told officials of the Jewish Agency, which arranges and funds immigration to Israel from the world over.

Inside Israel, immigrant housing will be concentrated in the Galilee area of the north, the arid Negev region of the south and, as is the case already, along the urban coastal plain, Sharon said. Soviet Jews, like other Israelis, can still move to the West Bank and Gaza if they have the means to do so. Without special housing arrangements, few are expected to do so in the near term.

Sharon’s statement was evidently aimed at defusing criticism in both the United States and the Soviet Union of the potential settlement of Soviet Jews in the West Bank and Gaza. Israeli observers noted that, coming from Sharon, the declaration was meant to have more force. Sharon is an ardent advocate of flooding the West Bank and Gaza with settlers.

A faction in the government that favors annexing the occupied land also gave support to limitations on the settlements.

The Bush Administration has been withholding approval of a proposed $400-million loan guarantee to Israel, pending receipt of assurances that immigrants would not be encouraged to settle in the West Bank and Gaza. Moscow had threatened to curtail the flow of migrants to Israel if the issue was not resolved.

The Israeli government still contends that Israel is within its rights to colonize the West Bank and Gaza and that development of the land will proceed, Sharon said.

“That (new policy on immigrants) does not mean that this national government has changed even for one minute its understanding of the strategic importance of Jews living in and holding the strategically important terrain,” Sharon said. “Construction will be continued, in accordance with government policy, in all parts of the Land of Israel.”

“Land of Israel” is a term used to denote not only Israel proper but also the occupied land. Continued settlement of any sort is opposed by Washington, which has raised the issue of whether American aid provides Israel with a cushion that enables it to keep spending money for settlements in the territories. Israel has occupied the land since the 1967 Middle East War.

The immigration of Soviet Jews--at least 55,000 have arrived so far this year--has raised fears among Arab governments and Palestinians of a massive flood to displace Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank. In January, Shamir added fuel to the controversy by saying that a big immigration requires a big Israel.

The increased Soviet influx to Israel is a result of eased Soviet travel rules under glasnost , or openness, and limitations on immigration imposed by the United States, the destination of first choice among most Soviet Jews in recent years.

Israeli officials contend that only a few hundred immigrants have settled in the occupied land, which is home to about 80,000 Israelis and 1.7 million Palestinians. About 4,000 Soviets have settled in Jerusalem, including parts considered by Washington and other foreign governments to be still-disputed territory.

Shamir, who formed a new government 2 1/2 weeks ago, has given high priority to a smooth immigration process. Sharon’s announcement fell into line with that priority. American Jewish leaders also had warned of adverse reactions in Washington if the Soviets were encouraged to settle in the West Bank and Gaza.

Israel’s government encourages Israeli home buyers to settle in the territories by offering special mortgages for the often spacious and less expensive homes there.

A second priority for Shamir is to repress the ongoing Palestinian uprising in the occupied territories. On Sunday, Moshe Arens, Shamir’s new defense minister, authorized a controversial program to permit settler vigilante squads to organize in the West Bank and Gaza. In the past, armed settlers have been involved in rampages through Arab villages and in several killings of Palestinians.

The first squads will be set up in Ariel and Kiryat Arba, both places where informal security teams have raided Arab neighborhoods in the past.

“The civil guard is there for citizens to protect themselves,” explained national police commissioner Yaacov Turner. “Any place that has Israeli citizens, where there is an organized body, and law and order are kept, there is no reason why a civil guard should not be erected.”

The Palestine Liberation Organization said Sunday that it will fight the civilian guards.

“We will fight every settler who plunders our land,” Bassam abu Sharif, political adviser to PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat, told a news conference.

“The Israel decision to authorize these Israelis to bear arms and kill Palestinians, on the pretext of defending settlements established by force on land grabbed from Palestinians, means it has decided to intensify the murder of Palestinians,” Abu Sharif said.

In the past, army officials opposed the civil guard scheme because the vigilantes were generally less disciplined than soldiers. Bloody incidents caused by settlers have set off Palestinian protests that the army had to put down.

Arens also pledged to step up army patrols on roads leading to settlements to keep drivers from being harassed by stone-throwing youths.

In Jerusalem, the police commissioner warned Palestinian residents to end an outbreak of unrest that began last week or face shoot-to-kill suppression. Three neighborhoods--Abu Tor, Silwan and Ras al Amud--were under curfew over the weekend after an Arab youth was killed by border police.

“We will respond with severity,” said commissioner Turner. “There are limits to a capability to exercise restraint. If those who live in Abu Tor, Ras al Amud and Silwan don’t catch the idea that there is a limit . . . there will be more killed.”

Until last week, Jerusalem was only on occasion convulsed by the kind of violence common to the West Bank and Gaza. The violence was centered in Silwan, where border police used both tear gas and lead bullets to control protesting residents. Two inhabitants of Silwan, which lies just outside the historic Old City, were killed by the border police.