Israel plans to pay an average of US$300,000 per family in compensation to settlers who leave the Gaza Strip and will give swift cash advances to those who go voluntarily, government officials said on Friday.
The cash advances could be available by August under a draft proposal by a government committee working out the details of a Gaza pullout plan that Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's Cabinet has approved in principle, the officials said.
Payouts before a planned March Cabinet vote on whether to begin removing settlements could force a showdown between Sharon and hardliners in his coalition, bringing it closer to collapse, political analysts said.
News on Wednesday that the committee was proposing that voluntary evacuations begin in two months set Sharon on a collision course with the powerful settler lobby, which sees cash advances as an attempt to make settlers to quietly and quickly.
Eran Sternberg, a spokesman for Gaza settlers, said most had signed a declaration refusing to leave or to negotiate payouts.
Government officials estimated the average payout per household at US$300,000, based on the number of family members and the size of agricultural plots.
Such a sum would be enough to buy a one-family house with a garden or a large apartment in many communities in Israel.
UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan told Sharon the international community was ready to offer assistance and resources to ensure the plan's successful implementation, Sharon's office said in a statement.
The total government bill -- including a troop withdrawal from Gaza and removal of four West Bank settlements also scheduled to go -- could come to more than US$1.5 billion.
Israeli media reports said Sharon hoped to push settler compensation legislation through parliament by late next month.
But it is unclear whether his government can last that long. Sharon lost his parliamentary majority on Tuesday when two members of the pro-settler National Religious Party (NRP) defected from his coalition.
The NRP has still to make a final decision on whether to stick by the prime minister. Its departure from the government would likely spur Sharon to seek a partnership with the pro-withdrawal Labour Party or force early elections.
Sharon's plan envisages the removal of all 21 settlements in Gaza, a sandy coastal strip where 7,500 settlers and 1.3 million Palestinians live, and four of 120 in the West Bank, which is home to some 230,000 settlers and 2.4 million Palestinians.
PROVOCATIVE: Chinese Deputy Ambassador to the UN Sun Lei accused Japan of sending military vessels to deliberately provoke tensions in the Taiwan Strait China denounced remarks by Japan and the EU about the South China Sea at a UN Security Council meeting on Monday, and accused Tokyo of provocative behavior in the Taiwan Strait and planning military expansion. Ayano Kunimitsu, a Japanese vice foreign minister, told the Council meeting on maritime security that Tokyo was seriously concerned about the situation in the East China and South China seas, and reiterated Japan’s opposition to any attempt to change the “status quo” by force, and obstruction of freedom of navigation and overflight. Stavros Lambrinidis, head of the EU delegation to the UN, also highlighted South China Sea
The final batch of 28 M1A2T Abrams tanks purchased from the US arrived at Taipei Port last night and were transported to the Armor Training Command in Hsinchu County’s Hukou Township (湖口), completing the military’s multi-year procurement of 108 of the tanks. Starting at 12:10am today, reporters observed more than a dozen civilian flatbed trailers departing from Taipei Port, each carrying an M1A2T tank covered with black waterproof tarps. Escorted by military vehicles, the convoy traveled via the West Coast Expressway to the Armor Training Command, with police implementing traffic control. The army operates about 1,000 tanks, including CM-11 Brave Tiger
China on Wednesday teased in a video an aircraft carrier that could be its fourth, and the first using nuclear power, while making an allusion to Taiwan and vowing to further build up its islands, as it looks to boost maritime power, secure resources and bolster territorial claims. The video, issued on the eve of the 77th founding anniversary of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy, featured fictional officers with names that are homophones of three commissioned aircraft carriers, the Liaoning (遼寧), Shandong (山東) and Fujian (福建). Titled Into the Deep, it showed a 19-year-old named “Hejian” (何劍) joining the group, sparking
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, said it expects its 2-nanometer (2nm) chip capacity to grow at a compound annual rate of 70 percent from this year to 2028. The projection comes as five fabs begin volume production of 2-nanometer chips this year — two in Hsinchu and three in Kaohsiung — TSMC senior vice president and deputy cochief operating officer Cliff Hou (侯永清) said at the company’s annual technology symposium in Silicon Valley, California, last week. Output in the first year of 2-nanometer production, which began in the fourth quarter of last year, is expected to
RSS