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The West Bank settlement of Ma'aleh Adumim. (Eyal Warshavsky)
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Poll: Few West Bank settlers willing to leave homes for cash
By The Associated Press
Tags: settlers, West Bank 

Only a small minority of settlers would leave their West Bank homes voluntarily if the government were to pay them compensation, a poll revealed Friday.

Earlier this week, Defense Minister Ehud Barak endorsed a proposal to offer cash to settlers living on the eastern side of the separation fence Israel is building along and inside the West Bank. Barak reasons it could reduce forced evacuations if Israel reaches a peace accord with the Palestinians and agrees to cede West Bank land.

The route of the contentious fence, under construction since 2002, encloses major settlement blocs Israel hopes to retain in a final peace agreement. These blocs are home to more than two-thirds of the 270,000 Israelis who live in West Bank settlements; the other settlers live on the eastern, or Palestinian, side of the enclosure.
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Under the proposal Barak is championing, these 70,000 settlers could claim compensation and leave even before a peace agreement is signed.

Friday's poll indicated that few settlers would take up the offer.

Eleven percent would move if offered compensation equal to the value of their homes, the TNS Teleseker poll of 400 settlers showed. If the government were to offer double the value of their property, 17 percent would leave and 76 percent would stay, the poll said.

Many religious settlers see living in the West Bank as the fulfillment of a biblical commandment. Accordingly, nonreligious settlers - many of whom moved to the West Bank for cheap housing and not for ideological reasons - are far more willing to take compensation, the poll indicated.

Twenty-seven percent of the non-religious respondents said they would be willing to leave for 100 percent compensation, as compared with 4 percent of the religiously observant. Forty-one percent of non-observant settlers said they'd leave for 200 percent compensation, compared with 7 percent of the religious settlers polled.

The survey had a margin of error of 4.9 percentage points.

Israel says the fence is a necessary measure to stop Palestinian suicide bombers and protect settlers. The Palestinians oppose the barrier's route, saying it is designed to grab land the Palestinians want for a future state.

Israel captured the West Bank in the Six-Day war and has since built 122 settlements there. When Israel evacuated the Gaza Strip and four small West Bank settlements in 2005, soldiers and policemen had to forcibly remove many of the 9,000 settlers there. The images were painful for much of the Israeli public, prompting politicians to consider ways to avoid such scenes in future West Bank evacuations.

Related articles:
  • PM Olmert: Now not the time for settler compensation law
  • Rightist MKs blast Labor bill to compensate settler evacuation
  • Rightist manifesto: Settler evacuation is 'crime against humanity'
  • Settler leaders fear 'tsunami' if PM decides to withdraw from West Bank
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      1.   Meaningless polls... 18:22  |  Esther 07/12/07
      2.   Perhaps also possible to offer cash to zionists like esther 1 to 18:46  |  Pssd off Arab 07/12/07
      3.   Force Will Be Needed 19:33  |  MR 07/12/07
      4.   The eastern side of the fence is not "palestinian" 19:43  |  Joe 07/12/07
      5.   Esther, everything except Meretz mantra is meaningless to you 20:27  |  Jake 07/12/07
      6.   Why should they leave? Racist to make Jews leave homeland. 20:49  |  David 07/12/07
      7.   To Esther 21:10  |  Daniel Ben Hillel 07/12/07
      8.   To Esther 21:14  |  Daniel Ben Hillel 07/12/07
      9.   Why shouldn´t they become part of a Palestinian state 23:50  |  Jon Hornstein 07/12/07
      10.   # 6 david 00:44  |  Axel 08/12/07
      11.   As esther said, the poll is ridiculous 00:54  |  Axel 08/12/07
      12.   Esther - unfortunately, far from meaningless 01:07  |  dana 08/12/07
      13.   32 pissed of arab 01:13  |  danny 08/12/07
      14.   Re Daniel #8 01:15  |  Esther 08/12/07
      15.   Addendum for Daniel #9 01:28  |  Esther 08/12/07
      16.   Ok, if they don`t want the cash 03:35  |  Mark Lincoln 08/12/07
      17.   Does Al-Queada deserve a break? 03:44  |  Mark Lincoln 08/12/07
      18.   How many Arab settleres willing to leave Judea and Samaria for... 04:03  |  Sol 08/12/07
      19.   The settlers...are all about SHEKELS.. 04:14  |  Ali 08/12/07
      20.   Can not pay them to ethnically cleanse themselves 05:12  |  Efox 08/12/07
      21.   re: Sol 05:19  |  Efox 08/12/07
      22.   re: MR 05:23  |  Efox 08/12/07
      23.   re: Esther 05:30  |  Efox 08/12/07
      24.   leave the `settlers` alone 05:58  |  Philip A. Robinson 08/12/07
      25.   Ali #18 Jews will pay you in dollars, not in shekels,agree? 06:15  |  Sol 08/12/07
      26.   Don`t leave? Fine 06:39  |  Steve 08/12/07
      27.   Settlers, Why Move 07:14  |  Ralph 08/12/07
      28.   Would it not be considered anti-Jewish racism 07:28  |  Ruth 08/12/07
      29.   You know ...1948 Axel 09:02  |  Margie in Tel Aviv 08/12/07
      30.   For Ruth #28 09:29  |  Esther 08/12/07
      31.   Re Efox #23 09:35  |  Esther 08/12/07
      32.   Stay strong as never! 10:00  |  Vital 08/12/07
      33.   dana #12 10:35  |  S 08/12/07
      34.   Stop quarelling.. I`ve the solution 11:09  |  Ariel Limonosov 08/12/07
      35.   Judea Samaria is Jews national place 11:14  |  trumpeldor 08/12/07
      36.   to s no 33:our soldiers ? kipot tsrougot or vanishing hilonim? 11:17  |  trumpeldor 08/12/07
      37.   #33, S 11:17  |  Cipora Julianna Kohn 08/12/07
      38.   Re Mark #16...no laughing matter... 11:55  |  Esther 08/12/07
      39.   to efox 12:30  |  eli 08/12/07
      40.   Margie the uncompromising liar 15:50  |  Labhras 08/12/07
      41.   A response worthy of a national suicide cult 16:04  |  Ivar 08/12/07
      42.   Holding out for more MONEY 16:59  |  Trandis 08/12/07
      43.   Any settler would gladly take money to depart 16:59  |  Natallie Durson 08/12/07
      44.   Pay4what? 17:03  |  tony 08/12/07
      45.   Re Natallie #43 17:23  |  Esther 08/12/07
      46.   28 Ruth re "Illegal Settlers" 17:27  |  Labhras 08/12/07
      47.   MKs must legislate Laws , resolutions and policies that streghten 18:29  |  Joseph E . 08/12/07
      48.   Let Them Stay 18:58  |  MIKE 08/12/07
      49.   Don`t trust polls or Jews that act like Poles 19:37  |  Rick 08/12/07
      50.   INHABITANTS OF JUDEA ARE ENTITLED TO THEIR OWN COUNTRY - JUDEA 20:08  |  Alon -Chiloni 08/12/07
      51.   "270,000 Israelis who live in West Bank settlements" 20:13  |  Yonatan 08/12/07
      52.   Esther, get out of our Palestinian tel aviv, ok? 20:17  |  Pssd off Arab 08/12/07
      53.   To Jon No 9 20:28  |  Jackie 08/12/07
      54.   To Ruth 20:34  |  jackie 08/12/07
      55.   photo op 20:40  |  jackie 08/12/07
      56.   The knesset wishes, step by step, to close down Israel 20:46  |  Alon chiloni 08/12/07
      57.   between the lines 21:21  |  Realistic Arab 08/12/07
      58.   #46labarse and the legal knothead 22:37  |  victor hardman 08/12/07
      59.   #48 Victorpaul Harrisman 23:05  |  Labhras 08/12/07
      60.   To Esther and similars who don`t dare put their name 23:27  |  Daniel Ben Hillel 08/12/07
      61.   Let`s Start with Sderot 00:23  |  Yitzhak Sokoloff 09/12/07
      62.   Labhras, you`re out of date 00:39  |  Warren 09/12/07
      63.   # 29 margie 02:14  |  Axel 09/12/07
      64.   hardman 02:27  |  Axel 09/12/07
      65.   Esther - I am well aware where 03:02  |  Mark Lincoln 09/12/07
      66.   #47 Joseph - Defensible Borders not possible 04:03  |  spyguy 09/12/07
      67.   The settlers will leave one way or another 04:14  |  spyguy 09/12/07
      68.   re: Esther 04:36  |  Efox 02/01/08
      69.   re: eli 04:40  |  Efox 02/01/08
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