Gaza settlers to negotiate as compensation paid out

14/04/2005 - 11:24:38
Gaza settlers have appointed a team of lawyers to negotiate details of their evacuation from the area this summer, leaders said today.

It is the strongest sign yet that they are coming to terms with the upcoming pullout and in another indication the plan is moving forward, a government spokesman said the first compensation payments to uprooted settlers have gone out, after months of delays.

The army is also pushing ahead with pullout preparations, making plans to build three new roads in Gaza to aid with the evacuation of the settlers, military officials said.

Since Prime Minister Ariel Sharon announced his plan to withdraw from all Gaza Strip and four West Bank settlements last year, settlers have vowed to fight to the finish to resist the plan. But since Sharon won final parliamentary approval last month, the settlers have begun to show flexibility.

Last night’s decision to appoint a negotiating team was the latest sign that the ideological battle is weakening. The decision, which came after a stormy, five-hour session of the Gaza Strip Regional Council, authorised a team of 100 lawyers and assessors to negotiate with the government about moving the settlers as a group to the coastal area of Nitzanim in southern Israel.

Last week, representatives of the 8,500 Gaza settlers met with Sharon and floated the idea of moving together to Nitzanim, located five miles north of the southern Israeli city of Ashkelon.

Eran Sternberg, a Gaza settler spokesman, said the settlers would continue to struggle against the evacuation, but that the lawyers are needed to protect the settlers’ interests if the withdrawal takes place.

“They are an independent group of ... lawyers, who decided to fight for us so that we can continue our ideological struggle,” Sternberg said. “We support anyone who understands the complexity and don’t want to see us become refugees.”

Settler leaders decided to appoint the negotiating team due to intense pressure from within the leadership that threatened the group’s unity, officials present at the meeting said.

“This is the lesser evil. It is an attempt to lessen the damage and to prevent a rift, and to make sure the fight doesn’t crumble,” said Ayala Azran, a Gaza settler leader who was part of the decision-making.

Haim Altman, spokesman for the government agency overseeing compensation, said the “disengagement administration” is not dealing with the Nitzanim negotiations because Yonatan Bassi, head of the administration, also chairs a company that owns some of the land in the area. Due to the conflict of interest, Sharon’s office is conducting the Nitzanim negotiations.

However, the administration is pushing forward with other compensation issues, and has received many new requests and applications in recent weeks, Altman said, refusing to provide exact figures.

Altman said a number of applications were processed and the first cheques went out last week. Settlers received 75% of their total compensation, with the remainder to be paid after they leave their homes, he said. Some families have indicated they will move at the end of the school year in June, weeks before the withdrawal is scheduled to begin, he said.

The government had planned on paying the advances months ago, but the money was held up amid the continuing parliamentary opposition to the plan. Last month, Sharon cleared the final hurdle when lawmakers approved his 2005 budget.

Despite the latest signs of progress, many settlers still say they will oppose the pullout. In recent weeks, pullout opponents have blocked rush-hour traffic by burning tyres on main roads and chaining shut 167 Tel Aviv-area schools. Security officials have expressed concern the resistance could turn violent.

The evacuation is to be completed in a tight, four-week timetable. In an attempt to accommodate the heavy security traffic expected during the evacuation, a military official said three new roads will be built parallel to existing thoroughfares that connect Gaza settlement communities.

“We have to do the evacuation in an effective way,” the official said. “We have to carry it out as fast as possible.”

The army has already constructed fences along one of the proposed roads to prevent Palestinian militants from attacking military and civilian traffic at the time of the evacuation, the official added.