Security Forces Prevent March to Hebron by Land-of-Israel Members

About 60 members of the Land-of-Israel movement including several prominent political figures, were prevented from marching today to Hebron by security forces. The movement demands Israel’s annexation of all Arab territories occupied in the Six-Day War. They were turned back on orders of the military government at the Kfar Etzion junction which is beyond the socalled "green line" separating Israel from the West Bank. Among the marchers were the Mayor of Netanya, Oved Ben Ami, and Benjamin Halevy, a Knesset member and a former associate justice of Israel’s Supreme Court, Eliezer Livneh, a writer and former MK, told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency that the group did not intend to march through Hebron but merely to hold a meeting there to press for the expansion of Hebron’s Jewish settlement, Kiryat Arba and to visit with the settlers.

Hebron’s status as an all-Arab town was preserved by the Israeli military government after the Six-Day War. Two years ago, Jewish squatters established themselves there illegally but were not evicted. Last year the government, acting under pressure from the militant Gahal faction and the National Religious Party, authorized the construction of a Jewish suburb in Hebron. More trouble with Land-of-Israel followers is expected Wednesday when they plan to hold prayer services in the Temple Mount area of East Jerusalem near the Mosque of Omar where Jews are forbidden to worship. Jewish prayer meetings on ground sacred to Islam offend Moslems and have been broken up by the police in the past. A spokesman for the movement told the JTA that they would not resist if police moved in on Wednesday. The police only do their job, it is the government that makes policy, he said.