Acting PM Olmert Convenes Ministerial Disengagement Committee

(Communicated by the Prime Minister's Media Adviser)

Acting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert this morning (Tuesday), 17.1.06, convened
a meeting of the Ministerial Disengagement Committee.

The Committee members approved Acting Prime Minister Olmert's proposal on
the implementation of a comprehensive plan to encourage employment:

* Volunteers will be trained by the Employment Counseling and Training
Center in order to accompany and assist evacuees and their families until
they find alternate employment.

* The Industry, Trade and Employment Ministry will implement a plan to
encourage employers - who meet certain conditions -- to employ evacuees.
Assistance given by the state to employers will be 15% of the employees'
average wage costs but not greater than NIS 120,000 for five years. In
order to encourage the payment of salaries higher than the minimum wage, it
was decided that the state incentives will be given only to those employers
who pay a monthly wage of at least NIS 4,500.

* The Industry, Trade and Employment Ministry will publish newspaper
advertisements that list in detail the range of professionals looking for
work in their fields. Thus, employers from across the country will be able
to receive detailed information regarding the supply of workers interested
in joining their ranks.

* The Industry, Trade and Employment Ministry will operate several
professional training tracks in which the state will pay each evacuee who
meets the eligibility requirements and who attends a course, a retraining
scholarship of up to NIS 3,000 per month.

* The Committee members decided that the Social Welfare Ministry would
direct disabled workers among the evacuees to sheltered employment in
Ashkelon.

Regarding education, it was decided that: parents of children who were
previously exempt from tuition at public nursery schools and kindergartens
due to the location of the community in which they lived will continue to
enjoy the same exemption this year. Student evacuees will continue to
receive assistance in the form of academic scholarships for 2006.
Incentives to teachers will continue, as will assistance given by the
Education Ministry in the context of the Karev Plan.

SELA Disengagement Authority data shows that as of today, approximately 190
families are in hotels. These families are due to move to temporary housing
at moshav Amatzia and kibbutz Ein Tzurim within approximately two months.
An additional NIS 20 million was approved for financing hotel stays.

The Committee approved continued development, and the construction of public
structures and mobile residential structures, at the following temporary
residential sites: Yad Binyamin, Ein Tzurim, Nitzan, Yevul, Shomriya, Yated
and Magen Shaul.

Acting Prime Minister Olmert said that, "As we discuss the disengagement, it
is clear to all that this was an historic step. But the hard work is to
deal with individual cases. This is wearying and I thank Prime Minister's
Office Director-General Ilan Cohen and all those who worked with uncommon
dedication. I am aware how this can be a thankless task but all of you are
taking the high road and showing compassion for the evacuees and are
embracing them on the one hand while taking strict care regarding public
funds on the other."