ABSTRACT
Sharon, Minister of Agriculture in the first Likud government, was in charge of the settlement policy, believes that the Jewish settlements on the West Bank are crucial to both the defence and existence of Israel, and could prevent the "redivision of Eretz Israel". From the West Bankers' viewpoint, Israeli land and settlement policies have threatened their national survival. The deportation of mayors Qawasma and Milhem by the Israeli government and the maiming of mayors Shak'a and Khalaf, presumably by Jewish militants, marked a turning point in the Likud's policy towards the West Bank mayors and the Palestinian nationalist community. The major aim of Sharon's new policy has been to "uproot the political influence of the Palestine Liberation Organization", according to Menahem Milson, the head of the civil administration in the West Bank. The Palestinian urban population, which for generations has been the core of the West Bank community, reacted with an unprecedented fury to the eviction of their nationalist mayors.
