Excerpts;
“The energy in the room was simply dazzling. This past Sunday night over 1,500 young Israelis crammed into Jerusalem’s Malha sports arena for what was billed as the final Championship Game of the annual Gush Katif Basketball Tournament.”
“Though just five months had passed since most of the players, and spectators, had been evicted from their homes by Israeli soldiers, that didn’t stop them from having a few hours of good, ol’-fashioned and much-deserved fun.”
“TO BE sure, the Gush Katif evacuees have known better days. After the trauma of being tossed out of their homes insult was added to their injury by a government that failed to prepare appropriate lodging and adequate solutions for the evictees.”
“According to statistics compiled by the Gush Katif Council, which continues to represent them, some 25% of those expelled continue to languish in interim accommodations. This includes 224 families, many with large numbers of children, who are stuck in hotels, and another 109 families dwelling in tent cities near Yad Mordechai and Netivot.”
“The majority of those expelled from Gush Katif have yet to be given the full compensation promised them by the government, and 50% have not yet even received an initial down payment. Only 3% of business owners and farmers have been compensated for the destruction of the enterprises they toiled for years to build.”
“Worse yet, the government’s Disengagement Authority has been strangling the evacuees with red tape and bureaucracy, often requiring them to locate and submit piles of old documents in order to prove they lived in the area. In at least one instance an applicant was asked to provide phone bills from 17 years ago.”
“And since their plight has gotten little attention in the Israeli media, the myriad social, economic and employment problems they face continue to fester.”
Katif Farmers Forcibly Unemployed
Excerpts;
“Over the past month, the Israeli government has run an ad campaign to encourage farmers who were expelled last summer from Gush Katif to come to an ‘Employment Tent’ in the new mobile home city at Nitzan.”
“However, evicted farmers who came to the “Employment Tent” last week discovered that they were not offered alternative lands for farming.”
“Nachi Eyal, the director of the Israel legal Forum, which has been providing pro bono leagal services for the evacuees, said that, ‘the government did not prepare alternative property for the expelled farmers, and therefore their life’s work is going down the drain. Today, we see the consequences we feared and about which we warned. People ages 45 to 60, who, until the expulsion supported themselves respectably and paid taxes, may have to remain unemployed forcibly for the rest of their lives.’”