An 11-judge panel of Supreme Court has rejected 12 appeals by Gush Katif settlers seeking to declare the Evacuation-Compensation Law illegal.
10 judges voted with the majority, with the only dissenting vote coming from Justice Edmund Levy.
However, the court placed four restrictions on the manner in which evacuated settlers can be compensated.
Two appeals were ideological: one, presented by the Gaza Beach Regional Council, challenged the law's very legality, saying the statute violated their human rights, and asked the court to nullify the law.
The second claimed the law would create"economic injustice" if enacted.
Wouldn't visit Gaza
Judges refused repeated requests from Gaza settlers to visit the area prior to rendering a judgment in the case.
Court President Aharon Barak said the justices seriously considered visiting Gaza, but to date no such visit has taken place.
Yitzhak Meron, legal counsel for the Legal Forum for the Land of Israel, a body that submitted one of the appeals, criticized the judges decision, and said it was a "mystery" as to why the judges chose to stay away.
"I think it is vital to visit a region when you are have the fate of its residents in your hands," he said. "Especially when the matter has raised such serious questions."
Meron also pointed out that the State had no objection to the visit, and that the court has an opportunity to save the country from a "problematic" process.
"It would have been more than natural for the judges to visit. The court has a fantastic opportunity to save Israel from an extremely problematic process and social trauma. I hope the court will intercede (on the part of the settlers) as it has in the past on the part of Palestinians," he said.
Response on the Right
Right-wing politicians and activists were vehement in their criticism of the court's decision.
“This morning the Supreme Court justices prove that like the International court of Justice in the Hague, most judges are PLO collaborators, who are trying to implement the policy of Hamas – the policy of expelling Jews from their land,” Nadia Matar, the head of “Women in Green” movement said.
Knesset Member Yuli Edelstein (Likud) noted, “The Supreme Court proved that it had the courage to stop the expulsion of 400 terrorists by Yitzhak Rabin but not that expulsion of 8,000 residents for no reason by a close-minded government.”
Others mourned what they said was the decline of Israeli democracy.
“The decision of the Supreme Court represents the collapse of the very last vestige of democracy in Israel,” Effie Eitam, head of the Religious Zionism faction in the Knesset, said.
Left feel vindicated
Housing Minister Yitzhak Herzog (Labor) said, “The message of the Supreme Court is that the (government’s) decision on the disengagement and its implementation was done in a democratic, proper and correct manner with the maximum consideration for the feelings and needs of the evacuees.”
Knesset Member Ron Cohen (Yahad) Cohen called upon the settlers “to release the country and Israeli society from threats of violence, to internalize the decision of the government, the Knesset and Supreme Court, and to come home to Israel.”
-- Attila Somfalvi and Diana Bahur-Nir contributed to this article
