"Beautiful Way of Life"

"Check and compare your villa at Nofim against any other residential project in Israel," urges the newspaper ad. From every window, it promises, "a beautiful mountain landscape is visible." There will be "green areas, public areas, communal facilities and an exclusive country club," all of it only 40 minutes by car from Tel Aviv. Best of all, each villa, which will be built on a quarter acre of land, may be purchased for $90,000, a third of which is covered by government-financed mortgages and loans. This is not a bad deal, since a similar home in Jerusalem or Tel Aviv could easily cost $250,000. There is just one drawback: Nofirn, "a beautiful way of life," will be built 9.5 miles inside the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

At present, only about 25,000 Israelis, mostly pioneers motivated by a desire to live in the ancient land of Abraham and Jacob, live on the West Bank, along with some 900,000 Palestinian Arabs. With the arrival of middle-class Israelis in search of cheap, uncrowded suburbs, the Israeli population in the occupied territory could double within two years. That is what the Israeli government has in mind, even though President Reagan, in his peace plan offered last September, specifically asked Israel to stop all new settlements until the status of the West Bank has been determined through negotiations.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so viewer discretion is required.