Many Housing Solutions, but None in Sight

Politics/Gov´t

As government ministers deliberate whether to delay the planned expulsion by a few weeks, other government branches are scrambling to find housing and farming solutions for the refugees.

At present, nothing at all is ready - not homes, not jobs, not schools, not farming land, and not social services.

Housing Minister Yitzchak Herzog says it's because the residents have not cooperated with the government. The residents say they never agreed to leave their homes in their first place. Gaza Coast council head Avner Shimoni said today, "Let's say I don't want to leave; but someone in the government has to find the solutionsfor these people."

Minister Herzog spoke with Yisrael Medad and Rami Sadan on Arutz-7's Israel Media Watch hour this morning. They asked him, "Why is there such disorder? You're ordering caravans [mobile homes without wheels], and also signing long-term deals with hotels, and also looking for apartments, and also going to nearby communities such as Nachal Oz for farming land, and also talking about moving the communities as one bloc to Nitzanim - all at the same time. Doesn't this show poor planning?"

Herzog said no, it does not: "The disengagement law has been worked on for close to a year, and it states that the government will give a check to each of the residents, and they can all decide what to do with it and where they want to live. But now the residents want all sorts of additions regarding permanent communities and temporary communities, and the government wants to help very very much, but it has to know where they want to live."

Q. "But you knew all along about this very complex situation, that the residents don't want to leave, etc. Couldn't you have prepared better for this? Didn't someone fall asleep on the watch here?"

Herzog: "No, no. There were great efforts to topple this process, and they created an illusion that the disengagement could be stopped, and there was pressure on the people not to talk with the disengagement authority - but now there is a better understanding of the realpolitik, and we can sit and talk. The government is truly willing to come towards them, and we're more organized than people think, but we need partners for it."

Arutz-7's Yosef Meiri contacted Gaza Coast Regional Head Avner Shimoni for his response. "It's true that we're the problem," he said, "- the problem that is getting in the way of Prime Minister Sharon's intentions to trample us. We don't plan to leave, this is our home, and Herzog himself should learn from his grandfather [the late Chief Rabbi Yitzchak Herzog] and his father [the late President Chaim Herzog] how to build a State and not destroy it. It's not our job to cooperate with his plans to make us refugees - it's his job to find the proper solutions for us."

A-7: "Is it true that the Gush Katif residents now 'better understand realpolitik and can sit and talk'"?

Shimoni: "For us, the Land of Israel is not politics - it's rather our home and the idea of settling the Land. I see that Herzog is mainly talking with Peres, not with us."

Gaza Coast Council Deputy Head Itzik Elia also responded to Herzog. "First of all," he told Arutz-7, "it's nice to see that Housing Minister Herzog admits that there's a mess - and this mess is caused by Ariel Sharon and his disengagement plan. What's going on now is that Sharon is under pressure not because of the plan itself, but by what happens afterwards. With an election coming up, he has no interest in the media circus of people living in tents and the like. That's why there's no financial limitations, and they're trying everything - caravans, hotels, kibbutzim, etc. They even made plans with 11 different kibbutzim, nine of which are secular and with which we have absolutely no connection. How can they make plans for us to live there without even asking us? If Housing Minister Herzog wants to help the Labor Party-associated kibbutzim, fine - but don't involve us."

Regarding Herzog's accusations, Elia said, "The government can blame us for not talking with them, but the fact is that we raised the issue of moving to Nitzanim three months ago - and the government laughed at us. Now they're waking up, but they're saying that three months [between now and July] won’t be enough time to prepare for us to live there."

A-7: "Aren't there also ecological concerns about building communities there?"

Elia: "No, the entire area is 36,000 dunams (8,900 acres), and we would receive about 11,000 acres for our communities, none of which are in the protected areas."

Q. "Is Herzog correct that you [plural] now better 'understand the reality'"?

A. "No, we do not. The date [of the disengagement] is coming closer, and so even those who didn't believe that such a thing could ever happen are now having second thoughts and want to safeguard their future. But still, no one except for the Lawyers' Forum is negotiating with the authorities."

A government ministerial committee was formed last week to speed up housing solution decisions, and yesterday it decided that Ashkelon, a city north of Gaza, and Nitzan, a residential community north of Ashkelon, would be appropriate places to house the refugees. A government order has been placed for 300 caravans. Efforts have been made to find farming land in nearby kibbutzim, such as Nahal Oz - but the kibbutznikim object to having their land serve as the solution for the displaced residents of Gush Katif.

Agriculture Minister Yisrael Katz has said that about 25,000 dunams (over 6,000 acres) are needed for the Jewish farmers of Gush Katif.

It has not yet been decided whether to postpone the disengagement - in order to avoid a clash with the Holy Temple destruction memorial period - and if so, by how long. Minister Katz, an opponent of the withdrawal, has suggested Oct. 25, the day after the end of the High Holiday season. "Pupils will not be in their new schools in any event by Sept. 1," he explained. Labor Party ministers fear that any delay might lead to further delays.