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Settlers and their supporters at an anti-disengagement demonstration late last week. (AP)
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05/23
Haaretz |
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05/23
Ynetnews |
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| By Israel Insider staff and partners May 23, 2005 |
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Seventeen families, most of the settlers from Gush Katif in Gaza, submitted a petition to the High Court of Justice regarding the planned move of the cemetery in Gush Katif.
According to the families, the treatment received by the government has been "humiliating and insulting," and they demanded the government coordinate with bereaved families before removing any graves.
The petitioners -- among them, the father of a 14-year-old boy who died of cancer, the father of a naval commando killed in Lebanon, and a woman whose daughter died of a flesh-eating disease -- have asked the government not to move any of the graves until the families decide where they would relocate to.
Mordechai Mintzer, who is representing the families, added that the law dealing with moving graves was "drafted in haste, arbitrarily and without any human empathy for the families of the deceased."
The petition went on to say that the families suffered psychologically from the prospect of being forced out of their settlement homes and, worse, from seeing their deceased loved ones disinterred.
Finally, the petitioners demand the government be held responsible for any mental anguish they may experience during the move.
At the same time, settler leaders slammed in new report submitted by the Prime Minister's Office suggesting that the Gush Katif leadership is driven by political considerations, and so is incapable of conducting pragmatic dialogue.
"The Gush Katif leadership prevents pragmatic dialogue regarding the 'Day After,'" the report says. "The settlers are confused, repressing, and in denial, and therefore are unable to make decisions."
"The government is doing and will do everything in its power to assist the settlers," the report says, but notes that "the ability to implement these solutions and the timetables are undermined as time passes without the residents' cooperation."
According to the report, the Welfare Ministry plans to enlist the aid of retired social workers for both adults and children, to help the settlers work through social, economic and personal crises, and to prevent drug abuse, divorce and emotional breakdowns.
The report, submitted to the Knesset's Finance Committee, deals with government ministries' preparations for the disengagement plan. According to the report, the population to be evacuated includes 200 families in the northern West Bank and about 1,500 on the Gaza shore.
Meanwhile, the Housing and Construction Ministry presented for the first time a snapshot of the current progress for construction and infrastructure development for residential areas earmarked for the evacuees.
The development cost is estimated at about NIS 43.5 million.
But, the leader of the War on the Disengagement organization said Monday that Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's pullout plan has paradoxically convinced hundreds of Israeli families to move to Gaza settlements, and that construction is underway to prepare 300 housing units for new arrivals.
"Sharon, indeed, continues to be the Great Settler," said Aryeh Yitzhaki of the relatively new anti-disengagement group, which Yitzhaki said intended to wage "war to the bitter end over the disengagement."
According to him, three new Gaza settlements are planned.
A parallel anti-disengagement group, Kelah [an Hebrew acronym for "Absorption in the Gaza Strip"] had seen a sudden surge in interest in moving to the settlers' Katif bloc in response to Sharon's disengagement effort, following a period in which such interest had been minimal, Yitzhaki said.
"We are absorbing hundreds of families in the Katif bloc. Construction is going on here, we are renovating 300 houses and caravans in the settlements."
There is also a long waiting list of families keen on moving to Gaza settlements, he said.
"The prime minister and his staff are in distress. He scolds and reprimands the Defense Ministry and the contractors for having done nothing, while at the same time, we are doing the exact opposite."
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