Israel could begin offering money to settlement evacuees by next month

Wednesday, June 9th 2004, 10:17 am

By: News On 6

JERUSALEM (AP) _ The government could begin offering compensation next month to Jewish settlers who volunteer to leave the Gaza Strip, even though the Cabinet has not given final approval to uproot settlements there, a government official said Friday.

The rapid work on compensation followed a Cabinet decision Sunday approving Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's plan to evacuate all 21 Jewish settlements in Gaza and four others in the northern West Bank by the end of next year.

Sharon persuaded recalcitrant members of his Likud Party to support the proposal by promising the Cabinet would have a chance to vote again next year before any settlements were removed.

The plan to begin compensating the settlers months before that vote appeared part of an effort to create momentum for evacuations in advance of that vote.

The compensation package will average about $300,000 per family, Israeli media reported, and will take into account the size of the home and the number of years the family has lived in the settlement.

A government official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the Cabinet is expected to approve a compensation bill ``around July or maybe a little later.''

Such a bill would clear the way for the government to give cooperative settlers immediate cash advances toward their eventual compensation, even before parliament approves the bill, he said.

Also Friday, U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan called Sharon and Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak to thank them for their joint efforts to prepare security arrangements for Gaza after an Israeli withdrawal, according to government sources.

Following a withdrawal, Egypt intends to increase the number of troops on its side of the border with Gaza, to send security advisers to the chaotic coastal Gaza to help train Palestinian forces and to help build new police stations and jails there.

Haaretz newspaper reported Friday that evacuating Gaza _ including compensating the 7,500 settlers there and removing military installations _ could cost up to $1.9 billion. Removing the West Bank enclaves will cost more than $110 million, it said.

Officials said Thursday that ``hundreds'' of settlers have already expressed interest in leaving.

The local councils of the northern West Bank settlements of Ganim and Kadim have contacted a lawyer to prepare for compensation negotiations, said Debbie Drori, a spokeswoman for Kadim.

She estimated that half Kadim's 28 families have signed on with the attorney.

Drori and other residents said the move will be extremely painful, but they will not fight the army.

``It will be interesting to see what they offer me. If it is enough, based on my expectations, it is very likely I will agree,'' said Gershon Bloomberg, a Ganim resident.

But hundreds of ideological settlers, particularly in Gaza, say they will resist any attempt to remove them from their homes.

Under a proposed evacuation timetable, preparations for dismantling settlements would be completed well before the next Cabinet vote and settlers who want to leave voluntarily could begin doing so by mid-August. The timetable gives settlers until Sept. 1, 2005, to leave voluntarily. Those who don't leave on their own would be removed forcibly by Sept. 15, 2005.