Last update - 00:00 11/07/2007
Most Gaza evacuees won't get permanent housing for 3 years
By Nadav Shragai, Haaretz Correspondent
The vast majority of those evacuated from Gaza Strip settlements in the 2005 disengagement will continue to live in temporary housing arrangements for the next three years, according to information presented at a meeting of the State Control Committee on Tuesday.
The deputy director general of the Prime Minister's Office, Ra'anan Dinur, told the committee that construction has begun on only two of the 24 communities and neighborhoods designated as the future homes of the Gaza Strip evacuees.
Participants in the meeting, which was lead by committee chairman MK Zevulun Orlev (National Union-National Religious Party), learned that at least 75 percent of the families currently living in temporary housing sites will remain in them for three more years.
The original plans called for the permanent resettlement of all the evacuees within two years of the August 2005 withdrawal.
Between 1,200 and 1,500 of the families evacuated from Gaza and the northern West Bank are living in 16 different temporary sites.
Dinur said the government recognizes the need to resettle the former settlers as communities rather than as individual families. Since the disengagement, evacuees have accused the government of foot-dragging on the construction of permanent housing.
MK Zvi Hendel (National Union-NRP) and evacuee representatives claimed that in contrast to Dinur's claim, the government considered community-based solutions for the evacuees only in the wake of pressure from the families.
MK Amira Dotan (Kadima) and other MKs criticized the cabinet's refusal to initiate legislation to improve the evacuees' plight. Farmers who were among the evacuees told the committee that the compensation meted out under the current law does not adequately compensate them for their
losses.
Dinur noted that cabinet resolutions on evacuee compensations added up to NIS 3 billion, in addition to compensation payments stipulated by law. He added that 98 percent of the 2,000 compensation claims filed by evacuees have been settled.