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A Jewish "settler" sits and reads on the beach in the Jewish community of Shirat Hayam in the Gush Katif bloc in the Gaza Strip. (AP)
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05/06
Nir Hasson and Yuval Yoaz |
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| By israelinsider staff and partners May 6, 2005 |
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The Gush Katif Council of Rabbis is set to release a letter calling on area residents to refuse to sign a document to participate in the Nitzanim plan. The government had asked the "settlers" to collect several hundred signatures before it moves forward with the plan.
The State says it will wait for the signatures until Tuesday, when the National Council for Planning and Construction meets. The document, drawn up by Deputy Attorney General Mike Balas and Shai Granot of the Lawyers' Forum for the Land of Israel -- who represents the settlers -- was given to representatives of the Gaza Coast Regional Council at two meetings with Justice Minister Tzipi Livni this week.
"I inform the State authorities about my desire to join the alternative settlement program in Nitzanim," the document reads. "I am aware that as part of the alternative settlement plan, establishment of a community in Nitzan is being considered, as well as other communities north of Ashkelon, and that a new local authority may be established."
Residents are also asked to put on the form where they wish to reside temporarily -- in Nitzan, Mercaz Shapira, Yad Binyamin or "other/not interested."
The document includes a caveat that only a signature to a later and more detailed agreement with the disengagement administration will be binding, and ends with a disclaimer: "To remove any doubt, my signature of this document does not constitute agreement to the disengagement plan."
The document also does not include a commitment on the part of the settlers to evacuate their homes willingly.
The opposition group says that dozens of families have already asked to sign the document, and that hundreds of families will join the initiative, which will guarantee that it will be pushed ahead by the government.
Government representatives recently clarified that the number of new communities to be built in Nitzanim, and whether or not a new local authority will be established, will depend on the number of people who sing the declaration.
The document has caused a storm in Gush Katif. The mainstream leadership trenchantly opposes the document, viewing it as a letter of surrender. The committee of Gush Katif rabbis intend to publish a letter in the next few days, calling on residents not to sign. The secretariat of Neveh Dekalim will publish a similar call to their residents.
Attorney Yitzhak Meron who represented the "settlers" in Monday's meeting with Livni also objects to the residents signing. Sources among the Gush Katif mainstream leadership say that no more than a few dozen families are likely to sign the document.
In the meantime discussions are continuing between Justice Minister Tzipi Livni and Gush Katif representatives about the details of the Nitzanim plan. On Wednesday the head of the Gaza Coast Regional Council, Itzik Elia, participated in the meeting with Livni -- the most senior settler representative to attend the discussions to date.
Settlers have delivered to the Supreme Court a detailed itinerary for a visit by justices to Gush Katif, whose leaders hope the visit will take place next week before the High Court rules on petitions against the disengagement plan.
Justice Minister Livni held a secret meeting Thursday with three representatives of the settlers, who asked that the Evacuation-Compensation Law be reopened for discussion. Livni refuses. Her bureau refused to comment on whether a meeting took place.
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