Only 8 settler compensation claims filed
Calls for Disengagement Authority Head Yonatan Bassi to resign, Committee for Settler Compensation to discuss compensation packages, say they are waiting for hundreds of applications; Gush Katif lawyer: resigned to disengagement
While The Committee for Settler Compensation met Monday night for its first discussion regarding compensation packages for families affected by the disengagement plan, only eight claims for compensation have been filed to date.
Sunday Disengagement Authority Head Yonatan Bassi's estimated that some 200 applications for compensation would be filed.
Reacting to the report, Prof. Ron Breiman of "Professors for political strength" called on Bassi to resign, claiming Bassi a “thorough failure”: “If the Authority can only muster eight applications, it would be better to tell the prime minister that the transfer (of Jews) will not pass,” he said.
Bassi, however, was unmoved by the criticism.
“Our lawyers tell us they have already received 200 or more applications for compensation, and hundreds more have downloaded the forms from the Disengagement Authority website,” he said.
Bassi predicted 70 percent of settlers would come to “one arrangement or another,” and said that most settlers consider the compensation package “reasonable.” Some settlers, mostly young people in their 20s, are set to receive smaller compensation packages.
Committee to check claims
The Entitlement Committee is scheduled to determine the compensation package settlers will receive by comparing settler claims with existing statistics.
Committee members will check each family’s details against documents submitted with each request for compensation, and will then calculate the amount of each family’s entitlement.
Appeal for more compensation
Last week the Supreme Court heard an appeal from 21 residents of the Ganim settlement scheduled for withdrawal. The group said the government must provide larger compensation packages.
It was the first time future evacuees attacked the size of the compensation package, instead of the evacuation itself.
The appeal stated “The plaintiffs will honor the rule of law, they will leave their homes and hand over their properties.”
But group attorney Alon Hamer said “We have no argument with disengagement per se, but we want the compensation package to be fair and just.”
