RAMALLAH, West Bank: Israeli Vice Premier Haim Ramon yesterday said that occupiers who agree to voluntarily leave their West Bank homes, east of the separation wall, will be eligible for 1.1 million Israeli shekel (about $305,640) each in compensation.
The plan was not voted on but was discussed ahead of further debates on the issue.
Ramon, who outlined the monetary plan during the Israeli Cabinet’s weekly meeting on the controversial evacuation-compensation bill, told the ministers that occupiers who would agree to be relocated to the southern Negev Desert will be eligible for a financial settlement 25 percent higher, and those willing to relocate to the northern Galilee area will get an additional 15 percent in restitution funds.
According to the data he presented to the Cabinet, some 18 percent of occupiers — roughly 11,363 people — are willing to vacate their homes immediately.
“Vacating the residents of Judea and Samaria (West Bank) is an inevitable step, considered by anyone who believes in the two-state solution, which is the majority of the Israeli public,” said Ramon.
“A government statement cementing the notion that Israel has no intention of ruling over territories east of the fence (wall) would help Israel’s stand in the negotiations with the Palestinians, as well as its standing with the international community,” he said
“This plan,” added the vice premier, “could also help us strengthen the settlement blocs west of the fence, leaving those part of Judea and Samaria under Israeli sovereignty.”
As for the fierce opposition the evacuation-compensation bill has encountered within the Cabinet, as well as within the right-wing parties, Ramon said: “We cannot see any interim agreement (with the Palestinians) in the near future.
“The biggest threat Israel faces now is the growing perception, among both the moderate forces in the Palestinian society and within the international community, that we have to start exploring a one-state-for-two-people solution. Pushing the evacuation-compensation bill through would help us curb this dangerous idea.”
The implementation of the evacuation-compensation bill, added Ramon, should not prove to be overly complicated: “Most of the settlers have fought to live west of the fence. They know that at the end of the day, after the various governments have worked out the fence’s outline and once a final agreement is signed, that (the west) is what will be left under Israeli sovereignty. Anyone saying we have to wait until an actual agreement is signed is essentially talking about halting everything. This is not what this government wants.”
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert noted during the meeting that he too is concerned by the growing wish to look at the one-state-for-two-people solution, as a possible answer to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
“I agree with Ramon that this growing trend is dangerous, since it’s being explored not only by the Palestinians, but by the international community and some elements in the US as well.”
He said the concept of Greater Israel is dead. “There is no such thing anymore. Whoever uses this language only deludes himself.”
Minister Amy Ayalon, who is one of the evacuation-compensation bill’s greatest supporters, added that “the subject of the evacuation-compensation initiative is one of this government’s biggest misses. The bill should have been pushed through and implemented immediately after the Gaza pullout was completed.”
Eli Yishai, chairman of religious Shas party, said that “whoever is leading the campaign for compensation to settlers will lead a campaign for the evacuation of Jerusalem and end of its Jewish identity.”
He called the intended law as a strategic mega-mistake. “The nation of Israel has not yet rehabilitated itself from the cursed expulsion and there are those who are devising additional expulsions.”
Benny Katzover, chairman of the Committee of West Bank Settlers, said that “Ramon’s thinking, according to which you can buy the settlers with money, proves that he doesn’t understand that there is no sum that can buy ideology.”
