Another Blow to Gush Katif Expellees
Excerpts;
Some 60 families – still in Jerusalem hotels after their eviction from Gush Katif 7 months ago – are to be thrown out in three weeks, even though their future living arrangements are not guaranteed.
“We were all set to receive the keys to our new caravillas in Ein Tzurim,” said David Banjo, formerly of N’vei Dekalim, “when all of a sudden, we saw that the contracts they placed before us were different than the ones we had seen a week before. In addition to all the uncertainty and instability we have been living with for seven months, now we have to face deception by a government body. It is simply too much.”
The main issue is that the families are to be moved to a pre-fab housing site in Kibbutz Ein Tzurim, with the intention that they will be able to build a new community in Lachish and live there upon its completion. However, there is no guarantee that the new community, currently known as Givat Egoz, will be ready or even approved by the government by any specific date. Despite this, the contracts presented to the families for signing specify that the families must leave Ein Tzurim within four years.
“We need a solution right now,” Banjo said. “Not in a few days, but immediately. In order to be ready for Pesach, we still have to pack up, move all our stuff into a new house, get our belongings from the containers that are in Kastina or elsewhere that we haven’t been able to get to, figure out which of our belongings will fit – if they are not broken, as many are – into our new, smaller houses, and buy whatever needs to be replaced. This is all in addition to all the other problems we face, such as lack of work, school, family issues, and the like.”
So far, some 120 families have signed up for the Givat Egoz project. These include 50 families living in Jerusalem hotels, 10 in Ashkelon hotels, and another 60 who are living in what they call the “Diaspora” – individual apartments in various cities in the south.