Israel approves compensation for evicted Gaza settlers

Israel’s parliament moved to give generous compensation packages to 8,800 Jewish settlers in the Gaza Strip and West Bank for leaving their homes, in a boost for prime minister Ariel Sharon’s fight to withdraw from Gaza after nearly 40 years of occupation.

The compensation bill sailed comfortably through the Knesset yesterday in a preliminary vote with the help of the opposition Labour Party, but the 64-44 vote reflected the deep division within Sharon’s own camp and the fierce opposition of the politically-influential settler movement.

Raanan Gissin, a senior aide to Sharon said the “disengagement plan” was likely to get a further boost with the re-election of US president George Bush, who endorsed the plan as a way of dislodging the Israeli-Palestinian deadlock.

The Gaza withdrawal, combined with the possible replacement of the ailing Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, could open new peace prospects, said Gissin. Sharon has refused to consult with Arafat over the plan, accusing him of supporting terrorism.

If Bush’s second administration “starts with an initiative on our part, it opens a gateway to return to the ‘road map’ to peace … provided the Palestinian leadership – the new Palestinian leadership -seizes this opportunity”, Gissin told The Associated Press.

Arafat is undergoing tests in Paris to diagnose a serious illness that has led some Palestinians to think the era of Arafat’s domination is nearing an end.

Palestinians also hoped Bush would be more active in his second term in Middle East peacemaking.

“We hope there will be a change in the policy which gave support for Israeli prime minister Sharon and refused co-operation with President Arafat,” said the Palestinian foreign minister, Nabil Shaath.

Both Israel and the Palestinians have accepted the US-sponsored “road map”, which envisages the establishment of a Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

But the plan has languished amid surging violence since Sharon announced the plan last December, as Palestinian militants stepped up attacks and Israel responded with harsh reprisals.

The compensation bill was the latest legislative hurdle for Sharon. The Knesset had already approved the disengagement plan in principle, but today’s vote was the first time the legislature debated the specifics and the costs.

Before it becomes law, it still requires two more parliamentary votes fter fine tuning by a committee, but legislation is rarely rejected after passing the initial vote.

The bill promised a package of hundreds of thousands of pounds to each settler family. The amount would vary according to the size of the family, how long they lived in the settlement, and where they move to.

The withdrawal of 8,200 settlers in Gaza and 600 in four West Bank settlements is expected to begin next summer and be completed with three months.

It would see the dismantling of settlements that were first built a few years after Israel captured the Gaza Strip from Egypt in the 1967 war. The Israeli military also would leave its bases in the narrow coastal strip, home to 1.3 million Palestinians.