Settlers clash again with Sela on transfer of burial sites

Disengagement Administration officials have expressed disappointment with the response of the Gush Katif settlers to a letter sent to them this week by DA chief Yonatan Bassi requesting their consent to transfer the bodies buried in the Neveh Dekalim cemetery to the cemetery in Nitzan.

After receiving the letter, settlers voiced harsh charges against the administration, accusing it of "insensitivity" and berating it for failing to address each family individually.

"When the hardest day of all arrives, the day of the evacuation, a family who has a loved one buried in Gush Katif will be faced with the dilemma of where to transfer its loved one," Bassi wrote to the settlers. "The decision on where to relocate the graves of your loved ones is up to you alone, but if you think there is room to examine the possibility of burial in Nitzan - as an individual family or as a group of families - we are here to help."

Disengagement Administration sources say the issue of moving the Gush Katif graves into Israel is not one of the administration's official tasks, but because all the official state institutions that are supposed to be handling the matter are evading their responsibility, Bassi decided to approach the settlers on the issue, despite its sensitive nature.

Disengagement officials have expressed much frustration, noting that the handling of the bereaved families in Gush Katif is a highly problematic and sensitive matter. They add that there is no basis to the claims that the letters were sent to the families en masse without being personally addressed.

According to sources at the administration, the photocopy of Bassi's letter that appeared in the media yesterday is the sample copy that was sent to the Hevra Kadisha in Neveh Dekalim and did not therefore bear a personal approach by name to a particular family.

The sources add that the letters distributed to the settlers bear surnames only because administration did not want to use incorrect names and spellings when it came to such a sensitive matter, and due to the fact that the settlers are not providing the administration with precise information.