Gaza evacuees: Government throwing sand in settlers' eyes
Former Gush Katif residents angered by Sunday's cabinet discussion on
compensation for settlers who voluntarily leave West Bank. 'This is a spin
aimed at diverting the attention from the real problems,' says woman
evacuated from Neve Dekalim
Shmulik Hadad YNET Published: 09.07.08, 07:24 / Israel News
www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3592948,00.html

Former Gush Katif residents who now live in caravan sites in southern Israel
were surprised to hear that the government would discuss on Sunday an
initiative put forward Vice Premier Haim Ramon, proposing the voluntary
evacuation and compensation of Israeli settlers living in the West Bank.

"On the other hand, we are not surprised by anything anymore," said Hagit
Yaron, who was evacuated from the settlement of Neve Dekalim during the 2005
pullout from Gaza. "This government is not leading any ideological statement
or line in any case."

"This is a disgrace for the State, to even raise such an issue for
discussion," said Aharon Hazut, who was vacated from Gan Or and represents
the evacuated Gush Katif farmers, a group for which the State has yet to
find an accepted solution.

The State claims that it has offered several solutions to the evacuees, but
they refused to accept them. Like his friends, Hazut lives in a caravilla (a
caravan made to look like a villa), has no work and is slowly losing the
money he got as compensation.

"This has nothing to do with any political matters, but it does have to do
with the fact that three years after the failed disengagement they even dare
discuss it," Hazut noted. "This is all so insane and inconceivable. It
points to failed conduct. Anyone examining the performance during the
disengagement realizes how impossible it is to even discuss this."

'Can't believe this is happening'
"About 80% of the farmers have no solution yet, and many of my other friends
have no housing solutions and no employment solutions, and now they want to
duplicate this idea?' asked Hazut.

"I'm sitting here and I can't believe this is happening. If they had a
little more morals they wouldn't dare discuss this," he added.

"They are throwing sand in these settlers' eyes," said Yaron. "They think
money can solve this matter, but money is not even the issue. There are
values and ideology here which are not being discussed at all, and instead
they talk about the money the settlers will be given. Such a move cannot be
implemented in exchange for money.

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"How can this even be discusses after the disengagement. The results are so
clear. Most settlers have no solution yet. The State claims that they were
given a solution, but giving them ground is not a solution because they have
no money to build.

"Who would have thought that three years later they would even dare discuss
this? But this is a government built on media spins and an attempt to divert
the discussion from the real problems," she concluded.