One of the many Gush Katif memorials
צילום: שאול גולן
Gaza memorials to be removed
Disengagement authorities decide to pull down memorial statues to terror victims in favor of one, central memorial site in Negev, at a price of NIS 700 million
Disengagement officials took time this week to discuss one of the most sensitive issues surrounding the plan – memorial statues to victims of terror.
Dozens of memorial sites have been set up to honor murder victims around Gush Katif.
Ynetnews has learned officials plan to replace the memorials with one, central monument near Moshav Netiv Haasarah in the northern Negev desert to represent all victims.
The Negev memorial is expected to cost NIS 700 million.
“It’s a touchy subject, no question,” said one official close to the decision. “I would say it is no less sensitive than moving the graves themselves.”
Families object
Officials charged with carrying out the project say it is impractical to go from family to family in order to secure permission to move the statues, and in any even have found little cooperation from bereaved families.
“Remember, the disengagement is particularly difficult for those who have lost loved ones. How much more so for them to also lose the memorials they have built in their memory,” said one official.
Officials also stress the new memorial will include smaller statues in memory of each victim, in order to preserve the personality of each individual.
But more than a few families object to the plan.
Hotels, resorts to house evacuees
Earlier this week, the Defense Ministry signed agreements with the King Saul Hotel in Ashkelon, the Paradise Hotel in Beer Sheva, and a holiday village in Ashkelon to temporarily house Gush Katif evacuees following the disengagement.
If the withdrawal plan goes ahead as scheduled, the hotels will close to the general public as of July 21.
Several other hotels turned the Ministry down, saying the plan would wreck their summer high season.
Ashkelon won’t take part
Builders also refused requests to rent apartments to the Disengagement Authority for evacuees, and Ashkelon officials say they will fight any municipal participation in post-disengagement plans.
Last week, city officials refused requests to establish a temporary caravan park in the city, and Mayor Roni Mahatzari has threatened to “act in all legal ways – including the Supreme Court” to prevent Gaza residents from settling in the city en masse.
But he added “Ashkelon will welcome any evacuee who chooses to settle in Ashkelon, and Ashkelon residents will help absorb them into our city.”
But he said the disengagement must not cut into the city’s future development or the natural resources that surround Ashkelon.
