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Last update - 16:06 24/04/2008 PM mulls bill urging settlers to leave West Bank voluntarily By The Associated Press Tags: West Bank, evacuation When the Ventura family moved to the Karnei Shomron settlement in the West Bank from a Tel Aviv suburb 20 years ago, they sought open spaces and mountain air. But years of Israeli-Palestinian fighting have scared away their children and grandchildren. Now the retired couple wants to move back. "We came here for quality of life when there were no worries here," said Tzuri Ventura, 68, a retired truck driver. "We just want to get out of here ... but we don't have enough money." Advertisement A new bill would compensate West Bank settlers like the Venturas who voluntarily leave their homes, and Prime Minister Ehud Olmert is expected to decide within days whether to support it. The idea is to get a head start on the evacuation of West Bank settlements that would have to be dismantled anyway in a final peace deal with the Palestinians. Olmert and the Palestinian leadership in the West Bank are trying to conclude such an agreement by year's end, despite enormous obstacles. Getting settlers to move of their own accord could help Israel avoid the violence and anguish that accompanied the country's 2005 withdrawal from the Gaza Strip. During Israel's evacuation of 8,000 settlers from Gaza, sobbing residents were dragged from their homes and others violently resisted. Many of the settlements were built during the euphoria that swept the country after Israel captured the Gaza Strip and West Bank in 1967. While Israel hopes to hold onto several clumps of settlements, Olmert has said Israel will have to give up most of the West Bank for a future Palestinian state. Those sections will likely be those located on the other side of the separation barrier Israel is erecting in the West Bank and that is nearly complete. More than 70,000 Jewish settlers live in these areas. As part of U.S. involvement in Mideast peace talks, American officials have expressed interest in the bill. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has raised the issue in meetings with Olmert, officials from his Kadima Party said. A key backer of the bill, Vice Premier Haim Ramon, will give Olmert a report on the bill in the coming days to persuade him to support it, government officials said on condition of anonymity since Olmert and Ramon were declining to comment on the bill. The offer would apply to residents of 74 settlements expected to lie outside Israel's West Bank 790-kilometer (490-mile) separation barrier, said Avshalom Vilan of the Meretz Party, a co-author of the legislation. The bill's sponsors hope the U.S. government would offer aid to compensate the settlers. If half the settlers in question agreed to leave voluntarily, Vilan estimates the total cost of buying them out would be between $2 billion (1.25 billion euros) and $2.5 billion (1.57 billion euros). Ramon's report shows that 25 percent of the settlers living in these communities would leave their homes if compensated. Sponsors of the proposal say the number is as high as 50 percent. Settlers who support the proposal say many of their neighbors are afraid to admit they want to move. About half of the settlers are religious hard-liners who believe God promised the West Bank to the Jewish people. For them, moving constitutes betrayal. "Many people are afraid to speak up because of public pressure," said Benny Raz, a resident of Karnei Shomron and founder of One Home, an organization of settlers who want to move. Raz and Vilan travel all over the West Bank, holding parlor talks with settler families who are anxious to return to Israel proper but cannot find anyone to buy the homes whose property values have fallen in recent years. Hard-line settlers sometimes demonstrate outside the meetings. Opponents also warn participants they could be fired from local jobs. Raz himself lost a security job in Karnei Shomron after he began pushing for compensation four years ago. The fate of Karnei Shomron's 7,000 residents is particularly unclear. The community sits just outside the Ariel settlement bloc, which Olmert has said he wants to keep in a final agreement along with other blocs closer to the Israeli frontier with the West Bank. Israel began to build a separate fence around Ariel, creating a finger that stretches well into the West Bank, but halted the work two years ago after the United States protested. Government officials have refused to tell Karnei Shomron's residents where the community will fall. One of the Orthodox Jewish founders of the settlement in 1977, Herzl Ben-Ari, believes the area will be annexed to Israel in the end. "When we came here we built big to show how serious we were, to show we were here to stay," said Ben-Ari, the local municipal leader. "In the end we will be like the Tel Aviv metropolitan area." Tzuri Ventura disagrees. He points to "for sale" signs that dot properties along his street. Assessors told the Venturas their apartment is worth the same as it was when they bought it in 1989. The couple says they couldn't afford to buy anything in Israel if they got such a paltry price. After fighting in four of Israel's wars, Ventura is not sure Israel should transfer West Bank land to the Palestinians. He just wants to be able to see his grandchildren as he grows older. An upstairs apartment built for the younger generations sits empty. "Our daughter has two children, ages four and seven months," Ventura said. "She has refused to visit since a suicide bombing here four years ago. Now we are left alone." Related articles: Most settlements lie east of fence, most settlers west IDF leaves Gaza after 38 years of military rule Palestinians torch Gush Katif synagogues Bookmark to del.icio.us   Peer pressure Facing widespread pressure, Nadine Gordimer may pull out of Israel writers meet. My struggle German Jewish leader backs the publication of an annotated version of Hitler's Mein Kampf.   1.   Ramon`s leverage 16:33  |  Rowan 24/04/08   2.   Good Start, but more will have to follow 16:47  |  Ibrahim 24/04/08   3.   Where`s the peace deal? I don`t see any peace deal. 17:14  |  Sam 24/04/08   4.   Whatever Happened to Yonatan Bassi? 17:37  |  Johnny Weintraub 24/04/08   5.   PM mulls bill urging settlers to leave W,B. voluntarily 18:13  |  martin list, m.d. 24/04/08   6.   How about this bill ....? 18:31  |  DovBer 24/04/08   7.   sooner see olmert leave voluntarily than us 18:35  |  yahn goodey 24/04/08   8.   Why mull...?! 18:43  |  Esther 24/04/08   9.   Bla, bla, bla 18:57  |  Martin Kalson 24/04/08   10.   Jews and Samaritans are the aborigines of Judea and Samaria 19:07  |  Haldrik 24/04/08   11.   How about a bill urging... 19:19  |  Zvi 24/04/08   12.   #2 Haldrik and aborigines 21:14  |  hala 24/04/08   13.   #3 Haldrik 21:57  |  Boycott 24/04/08   14.   Can NEVER be peace without Jews in homeland of Judea/Samaria 22:24  |  David 24/04/08   15.   first stop is dealing with deportees from gush katif 22:37  |  v hardman 24/04/08   16.   Mr. Ventura 22:51  |  Daniel Ben-Hillel 24/04/08   17.   Pay to Leave 23:24  |  Dr. David Feigenbaum 24/04/08   18.   Why "mull"... just implement ... 23:39  |  Esther 24/04/08   19.   WHY SHOULD THE U.S. HAVE TO PAY! 23:55  |  CGC 24/04/08   20.   #5. Mr. Ventura could be a fictional, and we aren`t moving! 01:46  |  Chaim 25/04/08   21.   daniel ben hillel 03:14  |  wibism 25/04/08   22.   Chaim in Palestine 03:17  |  wibism 25/04/08   23.   Withdrawing settlers from West Bank not EASY. 16:17  |  The Archives 25/04/08   24.   Jews are the aborigines of Judea and Samaria 04:00  |  Haldrik 26/04/08   25.   Jews and Samaritans are the aborigines of Judea and Samaria 04:02  |  Haldrik 26/04/08

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