Labor rebels' bill would pay settlers who leave West Bank

The so-called Labor Party rebels are outflanking their party chairman, Defense Minister Ehud Barak, from the left and proposing a Knesset bill that would compensate West Bank settlers who voluntarily leave their homes.

Haaretz has learned that the bill will be submitted on Monday by two Labor rebels, MKs Yuli Tamir and Ophir Pines-Paz. The bill offers compensation according to the criteria that applied to Gush Katif evacuees during the 2005 Gaza disengagement.

A Meretz-sponsored bill offering compensation to residents of West Bank settlements located east of the separation fence - should they voluntarily leave their homes - had been submitted to the last Knesset but was not passed.

If passed, the bill would provide for compensation to Israeli citizens living east of the barrier or "intolerably close to it."

Its phrasing indicates that at present, residents of these settlements cannot receive compensation for leaving their homes voluntarily, because, the bill's sponsors say, their homes have no real value.

The bill provides that the state should take over the homes and offer other suitable housing within the boundaries of Israel proper, in return for which the state will be awarded legal possession of the settlement homes but will not make use of them.

Tamir and Pines-Paz also propose that intruders who enter the evacuated homes would be sentenced to two years in prison.

"The bill's provisions underline the fact that, if we are indeed pursuing a peace agreement, we must act accordingly. Those who vote against the bill will have to spell out their parties' readiness for future agreements with the Palestinians," MK Tamir said on Sunday.

She indicated that she was aware that the bill had little chance of being passed in the current governing coalition constellation, but since its basic tenets feature in the Labor Party platform, it is proper, she said on Sunday, that it gain the support of the party's leader, Ehud Barak.

"It will be interesting to see what the party intends to do on the subject," she added, "and to see if it remains loyal to its principles. It will be no less interesting to see how much the Kadima party feels obligated to such a process."

The bill will be presented with the support of two other Labor Party rebels, MKs Amir Peretz and Eitan Cabel. Cabel recently resigned as party secretary-general after bitter disagreements with Barak.

MK Pines-Paz, who is currently attending a NATO parliamentary gathering in Norway, told Haaretz by phone that Barak had supported such a bill in the past, "and there is a need for this law, because there are thousands of settlers who want to move to [Israel proper].

"The bill sends a message to the world about Israel's readiness to renew the peace process and it addresses the needs of the country without endangering its existence," he said.