Ben-Gurion favored Judea-Samaria withdrawal, new film shows

July 25, 2016  

Newly rediscovered footage of a 1968 interview with David Ben-Gurion, Israel’s first prime minister, shows that he opposed communities in Judea and Samaria and instead favored returning most of the land Israel captured in the Six Day War.

The six-hour interview with Ben-Gurion — segments of which appear in a new film called “Ben-Gurion Epilogue” — had been forgotten until filmmaker Yariv Mozer found them in the Hebrew University’s Jewish film archive, according to the Times of Israel.

At the time of the interview Ben-Gurion, a member of the Labor party, had left politics and was living on Kibbutz Sde Boker in the Negev.

Ben-Gurion said in the interview that Israel should immediately relinquish most of the territories it had taken a year earlier in the Six-Day War.

“If I could choose between peace and all the territories which we conquered last year, I would prefer peace,” he said, adding however that Israel should retain Jerusalem and the Golan Heights.

Ben-Gurion also criticized efforts to build communities in Judea, Samaria and Gaza, saying Jews should instead settle unpopulated areas of the Negev.

Ben-Gurion, who was prime minister from Israel’s founding in 1948 until 1953 and again from 1955 to 1963, died in 1973 at 87.


Protect and Support Israel by Sharing our Articles

Similar posts

Leave a Reply




© 2007-2023 Solve Israel's Problems. All Rights Reserved