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Contents:
Eviction Through Negligence
At a press conference on August 23 at the Beit Agron International Press Center in Jerusalem, attorney Dr. Yitzhak Meron provided sobering evidence of the failures of the Sharon government in this regard. Dr. Meron is a senior member of the Israel Legal Forum, an organization of 50 Israeli lawyers that worked pro-bono during the period leading up to the disengagement, in an effort to ameliorate the difficulties of the Gush Katif residents, presenting their case to the Knesset, the government and the courts. The Forum, anticipating the problems, first approached the government last November, shortly after the disengagement law had been passed. They provided ample warning in writing of what might be expected, to no avail. The government approach to the settlers, says Dr. Meron, was "aggressive" from the beginning, with a total lack of direct communication. The prime minister never went to "look in their eyes," and ministers in the government who voted for expulsion did so without having visited the communities whose fates they were deciding. (When the Defense Minister finally traveled to Katif to meet with residents there on April 19th, he simply would not answer questions.) The express desire of most of the communities has been to stay together, wherever they are relocated. The Forum communicated the importance of this as well. Every significant study (especially those regarding what happened when people were moved from Sinai) indicates that keeping communities in tact helps to prevent post traumatic disorder, which results in serious emotional disability. The government - clearly aware of all of this - still preferred to act in a fashion that would break up communities, dealing with separate families and attempting to place them in different locations. The official approach, in the main, has been to negotiate compensation and then consider the government absolved of further responsibility. When individuals declined to speak with government officials and Gush Katif leaders requested that the Forum be permitted to formally represent them as communities, the government was not responsive. The current situation is a vastly complicated one, involving several stages on the way to final solutions to the problems of the evacuees. Monetary compensation will be provided according to a formula involving length of residence in the community, whether the family owned or was renting, and other factors. The original full package of compensation for all parties - 2.5 billion shekels - was increased to 4.5 billion shekels when the Forum went to court to expose the inadequacy of the projected sum. This larger amount is still 50% less than is needed for families to restore themselves to anything approximating their former positions. Compensation, in brief: for families who owned houses, roughly $700 per square meter, some $50,000 for land, and $1,000 for each year each individual over age three lived in the community; for renters, some $10,000; for certain land owners compensation via new land - a plan not working out successfully. Government threats - illegal according to Dr. Meron - to reduce compensation of persons who refused to leave voluntarily before August 17 are being challenged by the Forum in court now. To date, no funds have been dispersed. Rachel Saperstein, informal press spokesperson for Katif residents, who was present at the press conference, indicated that many people are without ready pocket cash because the banks in the Gush were closed prior to expulsion. A sum of 50,00 shekels (roughly $11,000) for each family, against eventual full compensation, is anticipated shortly. Families for whom total compensation is less than this will be required to ultimately return the difference All of the current issues regarding housing solutions were raised with the government by the Forum in sufficient time for them to be addressed - had the government wished to address them. This was not the case. A suggestion that 13 settlements be established in the Negev to which whole communities might move was rejected. A similar suggestion regarding Nitzanim, which is a beach-front area between Ashkelon and Ashdod, was similarly thrown out. As matters stand right now, there is a three-stage process facing the majority of the evacuees. When forced from their homes they had to be placed somewhere. This is the stop-gap first stage, which could have been prevented had the process moved more slowly and with more deliberation. In the majority of cases, the people are currently in hotels. Three days before the expulsion was to begin, the government announced that 1,000 rooms had been rented and everyone had some place to go. The reality was that 2,500 rooms were required because of large families. Officials had to scour Israel, seeking rooms at the last moment; the Forum assisted in this emergency action. People left their homes literally not knowing where they were going to end up. Saperstein reports that some large families are sleeping in one room, with mattresses on the floor for children. In a number of instances, people arrived at one hotel, as assigned, only to be told that there was no room and they had to go elsewhere. There is a problem of "competition" with tourists who have booked rooms and are being given priority. With all of the problems regarding provision of space came other problems: No social workers were sent by the government to help people cope logistically, or psychologists to help with trauma. Other social services were lacking as well. Mundane but very real issues were raised regarding such matters as insufficient food in some of the hotels that offered only two meals a day or lack of facilities for doing laundry. The flood of volunteers who entered the hotels to provide assistance vastly ameliorated some of these immediate problems. The situation was also ameliorated in part, according to Dr. Meron, by the initiative of families, mostly religious, who did not wait for the government to provide but made alternative arrangements, going to student dormitories and kibbutz guest houses, and setting up tents. None of this absolves the government of its failure to these people. Families were told that they would have 10 days in the hotels, but two-thirds of the families have no idea yet where they will go next, for the second, temporary housing, stage. At least three to four months will be required for this to be resolved and there is expectation that the period allotted for remaining in the hotels will be extended. Matters will become easier after the tourist season ends on September 1, but will become difficult again when the Jewish holidays start in early October. Of great concern to these families, most of whom have many children, is what school facilities will be available. Some small percentage of the families have already entered that second stage of temporary housing. Most notably is this the case with families who signed up for caravans (euphemistically referred to as "caravillas") in Nitzan (adjacent to Nitzanim). Some 200 families have received their keys, but are encountering vast problems: There are no synagogues, no schools, no clinics and no shops - simply an array of simple housing that is so inadequate that people have to store their large refrigerators and purchase small ones, and store their precious religious books as well. A maximum of 400 such caravilla will be provided here. The government is investing $100,000 in each of the structures, which are all scheduled to be destroyed in four years when residents will move on. There is no adequate information forthcoming as to why the government did not instead invest in more permanent housing. The final stage of housing solutions will not be completed for some three to four years. At present, a full 90% of the people have no idea how their situations will be resolved. This contrasts with the fact that when the people were brought out of Sinai only 10% were lacking a final plan on the day of evacuation. The roughly 200 families who do have a solution at present have been placed - or have arranged to be placed - for the most part as individuals and not as communities. The vast majority of those awaiting solutions still intend to work towards the goal of staying together as communities. Plans are being made for the 200- 300 families who have signed on independently to live in Netzanim. These plans are tentative however, as the government still must purchase the property on which the houses are to be placed. Those participating were required to sign an agreement saying that they understand if this cannot be accomplished by the end of 2006, the project will be abandoned. Dr. Meron emphasized that there is no legal basis whatsoever to the government claim that there was no official responsibility in cases where Gush Katif residents refused to deal with authorities. As the government ordered thousands of people to be removed from their homes, it was obligated to provide satisfactory alternative housing.
Gush Katif Postscript:
The ideology of post-Zionism has triumphed over Zionist idealism embedded in the residents of Gush Katif, Judea and Samaria who left comfortable homes in central Israel to fulfill their pioneering mission for Zionism. Back in the 1940's and the 1950's it was the kibbutzim youth who displayed the meaning of Zionist pioneering and self-sacrifice for their homeland. Young, left-leaning kibbutzniks, volunteered to combat units, they came to the wild unsettled Negev to teach new immigrants, and "to build the land and be rebuilt by it" as the old pioneering song goes. By the 1970's and 1980's the sons and daughters of the leftist Zionist elites abandoned the kibbutzim for the proverbial three- piece suits and the pursuit of money. Ben Gurion's son as well as Itzhak Rabin's moved to the US. Shimon Peres' son became a corporate tycoon. The socialist elite found its future in the New Middle East as envisioned by Shimon Peres- a new ideology that stands ready to forfeit land, history, heritage, and the very raison d'etre of Zionism, for the global idealism of open markets and technology as the only new tools for existence. The New Middle East is an unworkable formula for the Middle East. Peres' mind was on the West when he advanced his notions of markets and technology for the 21st century. The Arab Middle East looks more towards the glories of the 7th century than to Peres' visions of the 21st. Arab and Muslim leaders reacted to Shimon Peres' notion of open borders with hatred and contempt. Similarly, the unilateral withdrawal from Gaza, a brainchild of the Labor party, adopted by Ariel Sharon in spite of receiving a huge electoral mandate against such a move, will prove to be as effective as Peres' New Middle East. However logical in may sound to Westerners, the Arab Middle East has found a different meaning to it: Jewish loss of will and faith, cowardice, and weakness. The Palestinians are heralding the withdrawal as the defeat of Judaism in the face of Islamic resolve. In the meantime, Sharon dealt a devastating blow to the most idealistic segment of the Israeli population. The National-Religious movement that spawned the Zionist pioneering in Judea, Samaria, and Gaza, and sent its youth to the elite combat units, and development towns to help Ethiopian and Russian immigrants, is in a state of shock. Sharon deemed them irrelevant in his post-Zionist Israel. The message that Prime Minister Sharon sent to every Jew in the world is that in the free State of Israel Jewish sovereignty is limited, the continued living of Jews in their homes might be in doubt and their security conditional. And, that Israel needs to pay "protection money" to the Palestinian Authority enemy, requires Egypt's protection of its Southern border and US approval of its every action in self-defense or otherwise. Ariel Sharon alienated the best element in Israeli society-its idealists. Worse yet, he has used the truly sacrosanct Israel Defense Forces to do what the dictator Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe does-throw people out of their homes. What implications this action might have on the future morale of the IDF is yet to be seen. In the short term many of the young soldiers will live with a deep trauma and guilt. Their bitterness is bound to grow as Hamas takes over the former settlements in Gush Katif and uses them as bases for greater and more effective terror against Israel. The cry of the Jewish children of Gush Katif "Why are you expelling me from my home" may very well be mixed with the cries of the residents of Sederot, Netivot, Ashkelon, and other Israeli towns in the Negev, "Why did you bring upon us the terrorists rockets?" The answers will come in the next elections, but that will be too late for the traumatized soldiers, heart-broken former residents of Gush Katif, and the angry and grieving residents of the Negev. Joseph Puder is founder and executive director of the Interfaith Taskforce for America and Israel (ITAI).
1,000 families 'have no homes
to go to'
Meanwhile, State Comptroller Micha Lindenstrauss announced that he ordered his workers to monitor the handling of the evacuation of the settlers by the security forces and the degree of government preparedness for the disengagement. Lindenstrauss said the investigation began two months ago. Legal Forum founder, attorney Yitzhak Meron charged that the government was fully responsible for the lack of housing solutions because it failed to establish proper communication with the settlers during the disengagement process. From the beginning, he said, the government acted arrogantly and aggressively. "The Prime Minister was not brave enough to meet the settlers," said Meron. "He could not look them in the eye because he knew they helped elect him into office." The settlers had demanded a referendum to decide on the evacuation, but Sharon refused, Meron recalled. After that, the official leadership of the Gaza settlements refused to talk to the government but had authorized the Legal Forum to represent it. Sharon, however, refused to meet with the members of the lawyers' group, Meron charged. The government also rejected the settlers' demands to be relocated as communities rather than individuals. For a long time, the solutions proposed by the government were on an individual basis only. When settlers first came up with a proposal to build a permanent community in the Nitzanim area, the government turned it down. It took two and a half months for government officials to readdress the idea, as opposed to the temporary neighborhood of mobile homes, which is currently in the process of being inhabited, and presented the proposal to the National Planning Committee. Meron pointed out that even this solution is far from certain at this point. He said about 300 families have expressed interest in moving to a permanent settlement in Nitzanim. However, the government is making them sign an understanding that the homes my never be built because of legal or planning problems and that, if by 2006, the project is not standing, the project will be regarded as defunct and the settlers will be unable to sue for damages. The government also established an unreasonable evacuation timetable of five (later extended to six) months, charged Meron. "Everyone knew this wasn't enough time to transfer a population when no one knew where they were supposed to go." Justice Minister Tzipi Livni charged on Tuesday that the settlement leadership had refused to accept the reality of the evacuation until the very last minute for political reasons and that this approach had hurt its followers. "It's really a shame for the settlers," she said in a Channel 1 interview. "I visited their homes. They acted as though nothing would happen. I'd hoped to at least see soldiers helping them pack. But there was a conflict of interests between what was best for them and political interests." Livni added that she had tried hard to persuade settlers to join the Nitzanim housing plan. "Even in May, I was reaching out to the settlers, calling on them to take advantage of the solutions we offered . . . [But] in order to find a solution for the community, there has to be a dialogue between the government and the community. It's a mutual process." In a related development, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon urged the government to resettle the settlers as quickly as possible. "All ministries in my government must take immediate action and dedicate maximum possible effort and management to the rebuilding," he said, according to a cabinet's communiqu . Meanwhile, Interior Ministry Planning Authority Director Shamai Asaf told the cabinet that the Nitzanim plan included 1,600 permanent houses, enough to accommodate all of the settlers from the Gaza Strip. He said the development would be built in accordance with the number of evacuated families who are interested in living in the project. "This plan provides a full answer to each group of settlers that is interested in maintaining its community character," he said. This piece ran in the Jerusalem Post, on August 24th, 2005
Sharon rebuffs charges that
gov't is mishandling evacuees
"There are many untrue statements that the government is trying to break up these communities," Sharon told the Disengagement Cabinet referring to residents of evacuated settlements who wanted to be moved together. "It needs to be unequivocally clear that the government turned to the residents and offered to keep their communities intact. We are very interested in this, and want it to be carried out," he said. At the opening of the meeting, Sharon said, "the government will continue in its primary efforts to settle residents in new places, while making all possible efforts in order to shorten the time that they will need to live in uncertainty." He also asked SELA (the Disengagement Authority) to publicize detailed information regarding housing solutions for the evacuees, including the exact number of apartments available and their location in each community, Israel Radio reported. Construction and Housing Minister Isaac Herzog also presented housing options during the meeting. Vice Premier Shimon Peres suggested that the government refrain from getting into arguments with evacuees, since the public considered them a weak and victimized group. Interior Minister Ophir Paz-Pines said he suspected that in the near future the government would run into difficulties convincing evacuees to leave the hotels where they were temporarily staying.
This article can also be read at
www.jpost.com
Goodbye Gaza, Hello Hamas Anyone who believes that Israel's withdrawal from Gaza has even the remotest chance of fostering a spirit of reconciliation among Palestinians ought to consider the ongoing, venomous declarations of 60-year-old Mahmoud al Zahar, the most senior Hamas member in Gaza. Al Zahar has had some alarming things to say lately about Israel's withdrawal from the Gaza Strip - most recently in an interview that appeared in the August 18 edition of Asharq Al-Awsat, the leading daily international newspaper in the Arab world. The Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) has provided translations of Zahar's comments, among which were the following:
These non-conciliatory statements are nothing more than rewordings of the positions that al Zahar had previously enunciated in July, when he told the Italian newspaper Corriere Della Sera that Hamas would "definitely not" accept coexistence with Israel even if the Israeli Defense Force were to retreat to the pre-1967 borders. "It [coexistence] can be a temporary solution, for a maximum of 5 to 10 years," al Zahar said candidly. "But in the end Palestine must return to become Muslim, and in the long term Israel will disappear from the face of the earth . . . . We won't disrupt the Israeli withdrawal, let them get out of here and go to hell. The problem will be afterwards, because in the hearts of every Palestinian, the liberation of Gaza must be accompanied by the liberation of Jerusalem and the West Bank." Al Zahar's stated views are entirely consistent with those of Hamas as a whole. Since the day of its December 14, 1987 creation, Hamas itself has been most consistent in its positions on how to deal with Israel. The group's founding charter explicitly mandates that a jihad of armed attacks against the Jewish state must be pursued until Israel is eviscerated from the globe. Among the charter's assertions are the following:
Given these unequivocal positions, it is quite evident that Hamas has no intention of embracing a negotiated peace with Israel; the only solution it will accept is Israel's elimination from the planet. For Hamas, the issue of concern is not how land can be divided and apportioned most equitably for each side, but rather of how a nation of Jewish "infidels" can be driven permanently into the sea. This self-evident reality gives rise to the most crucial of questions: To what degree do the positions of Hamas reflect the attitudes of Palestinians as a whole? After all, if Hamas were in fact nothing more than a fringe element of Islamist extremists with whose methods and ideals most Palestinians disagreed, there might indeed be reason to hold out hope that a peaceful solution could be hammered out and pursued. But the facts regarding this question are not heartening. A September 2003 poll conducted jointly by Public Opinion Research of Israel and the Palestinian Center for Public Opinion found that only 13 percent of Palestinians agreed with the statement that Hamas is a terrorist group; 82 percent agreed that Hamas is a freedom-fighting organization; and a mere 10 percent believed that bombings targeting Israeli civilians in buses and restaurants could be classified as acts of terrorism. These attitudes suggest that the ethical and moral gulf dividing Palestinian from Israeli culture is so vast as to be unbridgeable. An April 2004 poll of 506 Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip found that for the first time ever, Hamas, which has long been the most popular faction in the Gaza strip, enjoyed stronger support among Palestinians than did Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement. In that same survey, 76.5 percent of respondents supported the continuation of Hamas' suicide attacks against Israel; only 15.4 percent were opposed such attacks. In a November 2004 Al-Arabia network survey of some 113,000 individuals throughout the Arab world, 73.2 percent of respondents said they wanted a Hamas official to replace the recently deceased Yasser Arafat as Palestinian leader. In December 2004, municipal elections for local councils were held in 26 Palestinian communities. Hamas, participating for the first time in Palestinian elections, won a majority of council seats in nine communities, while Fatah took control of 14 towns. "This is an outstanding result for Hamas," noted the Palestinian analyst Ali Jerbawi. "The 26 localities were selected from the beginning according to strongholds of Fatah. So the results should have been more for Fatah than Hamas." In local council elections held in Gaza in January 2005, Hamas won at least 75 out of the 118 seats it contested. The ruling Fatah faction of Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas won approximately 26 seats. Correspondents interpreted the results as a significant blow to Fatah, and a great leap forward for Hamas. In local elections held in the West Bank and Gaza Strip in May 2005, Hamas again made a very strong showing against Abbas' Fatah movement. Further establishing itself as a potent political force, Hamas won 23 of the electoral races - including those in Qalqiliya, Rafah, and Beit Lahiya, the three largest towns being contested. In summation, Hamas has developed into a major political entity to be reckoned with, enjoying immense and ever-growing popularity among Palestinians. The respective mindsets of Hamas and the Palestinian population alike are imbued with deep contempt for Jews and the state of Israel. This hatred has been nurtured by decades of poisonous rhetoric pouring forth from the font of Yasser Arafat's propaganda machine. Ugly characterizations of Jews have been a constant theme of Palestinian state-controlled media outlets, schoolbooks, and religious leaders. Consequently, Palestinian culture has become one of unsurpassed bigotry, a fact that does not bode well for hopes that its people are capable of committing, for any extended period of time, to living peacefully alongside Israel. This piece ran on FrontPageMagazine.com on August 24, 2005
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