Israel will encourage Jewish settlers in Gaza to leave their homes in exchange for compensation as early as this summer -- months before a Cabinet vote to approve evacuation of the settlements, according to a government document.
The government timetable, presented on Wednesday to the committee overseeing the pullout, calls for completion of the process by Sept. 30, 2005, or three months ahead of the original target date.
Settlers who refuse to leave by Sept. 1, 2005, will be forced out of their homes by the middle of the month, according to the document.
PHOTO: AP
The document was a sign of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's determination to go ahead with the pullout, despite opposition from hard-liners who this week deprived him of his parliamentary majority and threatened to bring him down.
Also, some Cabinet opponents were won over by his pledge to bring the four stages of settlement evacuation before separate votes, but the timetable means that the votes would be meaningless.
According to the plan, 21 settlements in Gaza and four in the West Bank would be evacuated by Sept. 15, 2005, and the army would pull out of Gaza by the end of that month. The process would begin with voluntary exit by settlers, beginning in August this year, in exchange for compensation.
In Washington, Sharon adviser Zalman Shoval said the houses at the settlements would be destroyed, but the public buildings would remain.
He told the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, a private research group, that many Israelis did not want to see Palestinian flags flying from homes once occupied by Israeli Jews.
The Cabinet approved the withdrawal plan on Sunday, the first time Israel has decided in principle to remove veteran settlements from the West Bank or Gaza.
The timetable for evacuation of the 7,500 Jewish settlers and the military was put together by Israel's National Security Council.
The Sept. 30, 2005 date for completing the full withdrawal is three months ahead of the target date Sharon has mentioned. In a speech on Wednesday, he repeated his goal of ending Israel's presence in Gaza.
"Israel made a decision this week crucial to its future, a decision on the disengagement plan that will be completed by the end of 2005," he said.
Though Cabinet skeptics insisted that their vote in favor of Sharon's "unilateral disengagement" plan did not include approval of actual evacuation of settlements, the document shows that starting in November, compensation would be paid to settlers who leave their homes voluntarily in an exodus that would begin three months earlier.
The timetable mentions a Cabinet vote in February, 2005 approving evacuation of settlements, but the process would be in motion months before then. The timetable was presented at the committee meeting as an approved schedule, but it could face alterations if opposition surfaces.
Israeli officials said Wednesday's meeting reflected the prime minister's determination to push forward with his plan.
"He is as determined as can be," said the senior government official, speaking on condition of anonymity. Following the Cabinet vote, he said, the plan is "irrevocable."
The voluntary settler-evacuation period would continue until July 2005.
Entry into the settlements would be banned after Aug. 14, 2005, to stop thousands of people from going to protest or block the pullout.
Evacuation "by force" of settlers who refuse to leave on their own would begin on Sept. 1, 2005, to be completed by Sept. 15, 2005.
The second section of the timetable calls for negotiating with international organizations about issues like transferring property. The target date is October 2004.
The third section orders the military to begin preparing its withdrawal in July 2004, pulling out of Gaza between Sept. 15 2005 and Sept. 30, 2005, just after the final evacuation of the settlements.
In Gaza violence on Wednesday, a Hamas militant was killed as Israeli troops moved into Palestinian areas, surrounded a house and flattened farmland, Palestinian officials said.
Palestinian militants fired a rocket at an Israeli town from the area on Tuesday.
The military said soldiers returned fire after an anti-tank missile was fired at them.
LANDMARK CASE: ‘Every night we were dragged to US soldiers and sexually abused. Every week we were forced to undergo venereal disease tests,’ a victim said More than 100 South Korean women who were forced to work as prostitutes for US soldiers stationed in the country have filed a landmark lawsuit accusing Washington of abuse, their lawyers said yesterday. Historians and activists say tens of thousands of South Korean women worked for state-sanctioned brothels from the 1950s to 1980s, serving US troops stationed in country to protect the South from North Korea. In 2022, South Korea’s top court ruled that the government had illegally “established, managed and operated” such brothels for the US military, ordering it to pay about 120 plaintiffs compensation. Last week, 117 victims
China on Monday announced its first ever sanctions against an individual Japanese lawmaker, targeting China-born Hei Seki for “spreading fallacies” on issues such as Taiwan, Hong Kong and disputed islands, prompting a protest from Tokyo. Beijing has an ongoing spat with Tokyo over islands in the East China Sea claimed by both countries, and considers foreign criticism on sensitive political topics to be acts of interference. Seki, a naturalised Japanese citizen, “spread false information, colluded with Japanese anti-China forces, and wantonly attacked and smeared China”, foreign ministry spokesman Lin Jian told reporters on Monday. “For his own selfish interests, (Seki)
Argentine President Javier Milei on Sunday vowed to “accelerate” his libertarian reforms after a crushing defeat in Buenos Aires provincial elections. The 54-year-old economist has slashed public spending, dismissed tens of thousands of public employees and led a major deregulation drive since taking office in December 2023. He acknowledged his party’s “clear defeat” by the center-left Peronist movement in the elections to the legislature of Buenos Aires province, the country’s economic powerhouse. A deflated-sounding Milei admitted to unspecified “mistakes” which he vowed to “correct,” but said he would not be swayed “one millimeter” from his reform agenda. “We will deepen and accelerate it,” he
Japan yesterday heralded the coming-of-age of Japanese Prince Hisahito with an elaborate ceremony at the Imperial Palace, where a succession crisis is brewing. The nephew of Japanese Emperor Naruhito, Hisahito received a black silk-and-lacquer crown at the ceremony, which marks the beginning of his royal adult life. “Thank you very much for bestowing the crown today at the coming-of-age ceremony,” Hisahito said. “I will fulfill my duties, being aware of my responsibilities as an adult member of the imperial family.” Although the emperor has a daughter — Princess Aiko — the 23-year-old has been sidelined by the royal family’s male-only
RSS