Gover

In its final push before facing a general election this
summer, the Begin government announced Jan. 25 it will
build 10 new settlements on occupied Arab land adding
3,000 new houses and incréasing the Jewish population
from 17,000 at present to 30,000.

Begin’s Likud coalition collapsed last week after three
and one-half years’ rule which saw the country dragged
to the verge of economic suicide (with an inflation rate
running at 130%) and condemned: intemationally for its
illegal settlements policy. -

The Begin government's record includes the infamous
Camp David accords behind which it stepped up its
occupation of Arab territory in violation of United Na-
tions’ and world opinion. It declared Jerusalem its ‘‘et-
ernal capital’’, has refused any talks with the recognized

leadership of the Palestinian people, the PLO, .and has
turned Israel into the highest taxed nation on earth to pay
for its spiralling military budget. Today, 40% of the
country’s GNP goes to the military.

- Begin’s policies have included a reign of legalized
terror against the Palestinian people at home and con-
tinuous military raids on neighboring Lebanon. His
government has instituted undemocratic laws aimed at
Israel’s Arab population, closed Arab universities and
schools and unleashed the country’s extreme right-wing
and the army on elected Arab officials. —

An example of Begin’s repressive acts was the ban-
ning of a planned conference scheduled for December
last year. It was to have been held in Nazareth and would
have gathered the representatives of Israel’s Arab popu-

‘ Palestinian youngsters show defiance
. the stepped-up military raids on. Arab
towns and villages. The Begin govern-
ment, which collapsed last week, is using
4. the time remaining to drastically increase
| its iilegal settlements program on oc-
‘+ cupled lands.

it is generally conceded Begin’s Likud
coalition will not win re-election, thus its
' haste to complete the physical annexa-
tion program it promised when elected
three and one-half years ago. ;

Despite protestations of regret, both Ot-
tawa and the new Reagan administration
have not officially condemned Begin and
the Israeli hawks nor urged them to abide
by UN resolutions opposing the settie-

ment program.

lation and Jewish democratic and peace forces.

Six days before the conference was to start, Prime
Minister Begin, in his capacity as Defence Ministet, —
issued a banning order.

Conference organizers launched an appeal against the
ban and offered an insight into what was to be achieved
there. The preparatory committee was made up of 80 |
representatives of the Arab national minority in Israel
including members of the Knesset (parliament), trade
unionists, women’s leaders, journalists, poets, students
— in short a truly representative cross section of Israel’8
Arab population. : ;

The conference was to have adopted a program-of
action calling for the elimination of national discrimina- _
tion and oppression against the Arab minority. It in- —
tended to call for a return of stolen Arab lands, im-
provement of Arab education, equal opportunities fot
Arab workers and graduates who today find most indus-
tries and institutions closed to them.

The program called for the defence of democracy
against repressive laws such as the recent amendment
of the citizenship laws which authorizes the minister of
the interior to annul the citizenship of anyone suspected —
of disloyalty to the state.  ~ 4

The conference program called for a just and stable —

|

- peace. This plan emphasized that there are two basiC

sides to the conflict — the Israeli side and the Palesti-
nian side — the former represented by the Israeli
government the latter by the Palestinian Liberation
Organization, ‘and peace can be achieved through
negotiations between them.”

It called for evacuation by Israel of all Arab lands
occupied after the 1967 war (which the UN also de-
mands), and the establishment of an independent Pales-

. tinian state in the West Bank — including Arab

soba — and the Gaza strip, alongside the state of
srael.

It demands the ‘‘recognition of the right of refugees to
return to their homeland in accordance with United Na-
tions resolutions”’ and for ‘‘establishing of peaceful rela-
tions between the State of Israel and the Palestinian state
and the other Arab states within the framework of the
UN Charter and in accordance with international and
agreed-upon guarantees.” 0

The full program accompanies the appeal against the
ban and outlines in detail those steps needed to ensure@ —
stable peace based on equality and justice. Prime Minis- —
ter Begin’s reply was to ban the meeting, increase re-
pression and quicken the pace of his settlements pro-
gram.

New rocket

By FILS DELISLE
Tribune Berlin

BERLIN — The strong growth of opposition to West
Germany’s official support for the stationing ofnew U.S.
nuclear rockets on West German and. West European
territory has begun to send shock waves through the
Bonn government.

The demand for an end to the U.S.-NATO program for
introducing another 572 nuclear rockets into West
Europe against the socialist countries has this past week
brought massive protests from Secial Democratic mem-
bers of the FRG’s parliament, from members and friends
of the Social Democratic Party, from elected represen-
tatives at lower government levels, from many citizens’
initiative bodies, from public meetings and even from
officers of the FRG’s armed forces like General Gert
Bastian and airforce officer Peter Pahmeyer.

General Bastian was dragooned out of the army for his
public warnings that the U.S.-NATO plan to sub-
stantially increase the number of medium-range nuclea'
rockets in NATO countries is an aggressive move, is not
justified by defence needs and would threaten West
Germany and the other countries involved with extinc-
tion

The outstanding development this past week in the
broad campaign against the NATO nuclear rockets pro-
gram was the appeal to the government by 24 Social
Democratic members of the Bonn parliament to throw
out the government’s decision of December, 1979 ap-
proving the U.S.-NATO plan. This action, unpre-
cedented in the FRG’s postwar history, is said to have
created extreme nervousness in Bonn’s ruling circles.
Chancellor Helmut Schmidt, along with FDP leader and
Foreign Minister Dieter Genscher and some other
government ministers refused to be moved by the appe-
al. But the cashiered General Bastian issued a public
statement, at a meeting of the evangelical student com-
munity in Wuerzburg, that the public campaign outside
PACIFIC TRIBUNE—FEB. 6, 1981—Page 6

plan rocks FRG

parliament against the new NATO rockets should sup-

port the group of 24 Social Democratic oppositionists.

He declared: ‘‘Back up the elected representatives in |

the Federal Republic who take up a position against the
armaments.’ A further petition against the new rockets,

- . “The Bielefelder Appeal’’, has been signed by 115 Social

Democratic elected representatives of local govern-
ments. The appeal calls on Chancellor Schmidt not to
jeopardize the policy of détente, and to revoke the deci-
sion on stationing new rockets on FRG territory.
Airforce officer Pahmeyer, supporting the appeal, said
what was involved was ‘‘the question of the existence”

of the FRG, “‘which concerns every person, regardless.
of party or confessional adherence, and requires joint.
activity’’. Members of the Bonn parliament, as well as

influential West German newspapers, point out that
Bonn dragooned oppositional elements into supporting
the NATO rockets program in 1979 by promising that the
SALT-II treaty would keep things under control and that
after the rockets’ decision NATO would begin nego-
tiations with the USSR on disarmament. :

But now, these parliamentarians and newspapers
point out, SALT-II has been tossed into the wastepaper

basket by the USA and instead of negotiations of
disarmament, the U.S. has been moving from a policy of
negotiations to a policy of confrontation with the USSR.
Commenting on these new developments in the FRG —
which reflect political tendencies in a number of other
NATO countries — the GDR newspaper Neues
Deutschland, said they represent the spread of common-
sense in the FRG ‘“‘which is setting up a front against the
NATO diktat’’. At the same time, the Foreign Ministers —
of the Soviet Union and the GDR declared in a joint
statement, ‘‘the GDR and the USSR will continue to deal
an appropriate rebuff to all attempts of imperialism to_
undertake ideological and other forms of diversion
against the socialist states.” . , :

They warned that ‘‘the plans for the stationing of
American medium-range nuclear rockets in West
Europe creates a special danger for the Europea
peoples’’. They also condemned Peking’s
‘military-political game of collaboration with the USA”
but emphasized that ‘‘normalization of relations with
China would always be possible on thé basis of the
generally recognized principles of peaceful
coexistence”’.

McDermott hits Chilean arrests |

Special to the Tribune

 Chile’s two top trade unionists have been arrested and
charged with “‘impersonating trade union leaders’’ — a
charge carrying severe penalties. Manuel Bustos and
Alimiro Guzman, president and secretary-general of the
Coordinadora Nacional Sindicto (the national co-
ordinating trade union) were picked up late last week on
the express order of the minister of the interior. The
Coordinadora is not officially recognized by the junta but
it is impossible to ignore as it attempts to defend the

rights of workers. In fact, a December meeting of the
Coordinadora decided to try to organize a general strike —
in opposition to the fascist labor plan.

Dennis McDermott, president of the Canadian Labor
Congress, has sent a letter to the junta urging the releas¢ —
of the two men, and the return of trade union freedoms. —
Other trade unions and democratic organizations are
being asked to send similar protests to General Pinochet, -
Edificio Diego Portales, Santiago, Chile. ~ a