Gaza families request compensation but vow to resist evacuation
Pragmatism won out over ideology today as hundreds of Gaza residents took a first step toward co-operating with the government’s plan to evacuate the coastal strip next month.
A representative of the settlers said families began the process of seeking government compensation as a kind of insurance policy, but settlers would continue to fight the pullout, scheduled to begin in mid-August.
Today, hundreds of settlers handed in forms requesting detailed assessments of their property, said Itzik Spiegel, a lawyer representing Gaza settlers.
Some of the requests were submitted on orange paper, the colour symbolising opposition to the pullout from Gaza and four West Bank settlements, he added.
Itzik Ilia, deputy head of the Gaza settler regional council, said the families were submitting the forms because today was the deadline the Supreme Court gave for requesting an assessment. But he insisted settlers would continue to fight the pullout, scheduled to begin in mid-August.
“It will only be a done deal when I leave …. With my family,” Ilia said.
Haim Altman, a spokesman for the government administration overseeing compensation, said he was told to expect about 1,000 forms. No exact number was available at the end of the work day.
“I don’t want to jump for joy at the moment, I don’t want to say if it is good or not,” he said.
Up to today, only about 400 Gaza and West Bank families had requested government compensation, and an additional 400 families were in various stages of talks with the government on relocating.
In total, about 1,800 families - some 9,000 people – are to be evacuated from their homes this summer.
Many of the settlers oppose the plan and have vowed to resist. At the same time, they accuse the government of not providing equitable alternative housing solutions and of offering unfair compensation.
The government says the settlers’ refusal to co-operate is making it difficult to provide them with acceptable housing after the evacuation, although rentals units, prefabs and hotel rooms already have been reserved.
Police, meanwhile, simulated the evacuation of a settlement in an army base in southern Israel.
Yesterday, Defence Minister Shaul Mofaz said 45,000 soldiers and police would be mobilised for the operation.
Police Commissioner Moshe Karadi said police officers who live in the settlements will be excused from taking part.
Some soldiers have already refused to obey orders to participate in pullout-related activities, and the army is preparing for the possibility that dozens will follow suit when the evacuation begins.
Israeli and Palestinian officials were meeting today to continue co-ordination efforts. Palestinian Cabinet Minister Mohammed Dahlan said agreements are in place on main issues like reopening the Gaza airport, building a seaport and starting reconstruction projects.
He said discussions were still in progress about whether Israel would leave greenhouses intact after the pullout, and what would be done with the debris of houses to be destroyed.
Settler leaders have called for a mass march to Gaza on July 18, an attempt to sabotage the evacuation by inundating the area with protesters.
Security forces were preparing for the possibility of sealing off Gaza to non-residents as early as Sunday, a military official said today on condition of anonymity because no decision has been made. In the event of a mass migration, they plan to immediately seal off the area, the official said.
Last week, the army briefly closed off Gaza to non-residents so they could storm a hotel and remove Jewish extremists who had barricaded themselves inside.
In West Bank violence, soldiers killed a 17-year-old Palestinian and wounded his friend after they fired on a convoy of Jewish worshippers and soldiers who were leaving the Joseph’s Tomb holy site near the city of Nablus.
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