First significant achievement for the Disengagement Authority: Some 40 Gush Katif families are set to pack up their belongings and willingly evacuate their homes after coming to an agreement with the Disengagement Authority regarding the technical aspects of their relocation.
By the end of July, 22 families from the Gaza settlements slated for evacuation Nisanit and Ele Sinai are expected to transfer to their temporary residences in Kibbutz Or Haner, while 16 other families are set to relocate to temporary rental homes in Ashkelon, Sderot and Ofakim.
“We hope to be in our temporary homes by the end of July,” Ele Sinai resident Dudi Saadon, who is part of a group of settler families that is expected to eventually move to permanent residences in Bat Hadar, located in the Ashkelon Coast Regional Council area, said.
“All the details regarding the property of our communal neighborhood in Bat Hadar have been agreed upon and I believe that within two years, at the latest, all the (settler) families belonging to the group will settle in the villas being built for them near Ashkelon.”
He said, ‘it is painful to leave, but if it is decreed that we must, then it is better to do it quickly and efficiently.”
Saadon said that even though the move from spacious homes to much smaller cara-villas (mobile homes) is temporary, the settlers demanded high quality construction.
“The state is financing the construction, which costs about USD 50,000 for each of these (temporary) houses. Meanwhile, with the compensation money, each of the 38 families in the group will be able to build the villa of their dreams,” he said.
“I belive that within a few weeks we will begin to pack up our homes into cardboard boxes and prepare for the move to Kibbutz Or Haner. We visited the kibbutz on a number of occasions and during the holidays, and we were greeted very warmly.”
'Not a bad solution'
The government also agreed to finance the construction of a noise-insulation wall along the evacuees Bat Hadar neighborhood, as it is situated near the Ashekelon-Yad Mordechai highway.
Bat Hadar also planned to build a geriatric center on land located near the area earmarked for the settler neighborhood to boost the community’s income, but the Disengagement Authority purchased the land and granted Bat Hadar an alternate piece of property.
“I believe that under the circumstances the soulution we were given is not bad at all,” Saadon said.
“None of us plan on waiting to watch how the soldiers and police officers come and evacuate Ele Sinai and Nisanit,” Saadon said.
