Israeli ministers approve compensation for settlers

Senior Israeli Cabinet ministers approved the payment of cash advances to Jewish settlers who will be removed from their homes under Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s plan to withdraw from the Gaza Strip.

The 9-1 vote in the Security Cabinet marked the government’s first concrete step toward the withdrawal and gave a boost to Sharon, who faces growing opposition. Earlier Tuesday, he rejected a rival’s call to hold a national referendum on the Gaza pullout, calling it a stalling tactic.

Sharon wants to withdraw from all of Gaza and a small part of the West Bank by September 2005, removing 8,500 settlers from their homes.

He hopes the cash advances will entice settlers to leave voluntarily well ahead of the deadline, avoiding confrontations between settlers and troops.

Under the compensation plans, uprooted families could receive between £110,000 and £195,000 for their losses.

While the compensation law still needs parliamentary approval, officials said cash advances – totalling up to one-third of the final compensation package - could be made in the meantime from reserve funds.

A senior government official said the advances could begin flowing “within days.”

Settler leaders bitterly oppose any withdrawal. Yehoshua Mor-Yosef, a settler spokesman, said the vote “proves this is a destructive, illegitimate government.”

Police are investigating death threats against Sharon and the director of the disengagement administration.

On Sunday Sharon warned that incitement by extremist opponents of his pullout plan could lead to civil war.

In other developments, Sharon threatened to expel Yasser Arafat “at a convenient time,” saying in a newspaper interview that he saw no difference between the Palestinian leader and top Hamas militants killed by Israel. Israel says Arafat has encouraged and financed attacks on Israel.

However, Sharon, who has made similar threats in the past, is not expected to take action against the Palestinian leader while he is focused on the Gaza plan.

Nonetheless, Palestinian Cabinet minister Saeb Erekat called the threats part of a hidden agenda “to kill President Arafat and to push the Palestinian people toward chaos.”

In the West Bank, a Palestinian suicide bomber riding a bike blew himself up near a checkpoint, wounding at least two Israeli soldiers, one of them seriously.