Evacuees stay away from Likud polls

Most evacuated settlers refrain from partaking in primary elections for party responsible for pullout

Reuters | Published: 12.19.05, 15:47

While Likud primaries took place Monday, the evacuated settlers at the Nitzan cara-villas site were reluctant to take part in the celebration.

Of the 78 registered Likud members residing in Nitzan, only few arrived at the voting station placed at the community to cast their ballots. Most preferred to remember that Likud was the party responsible for evacuating them from their homes.

"We will eventually vote for the candidate who was not behind the eviction, Moshe Feiglin," Elimelech Vexler, who was the first to vote along with his wife, told Ynet.

"Although it is the Likud that was responsible for the disengagement, we chose to support a man, not a party. The state of Israel was also responsible for this move, and we will do everything to see the Likud change," Vexler said.

Disappointed by parties

Chairman of the Nitzan Likud branch Shalom Yifrach said there were 384 evacuees throughout Israel registered as party members.

"I hope everybody will make the right choice, and that we will elect the candidate capable of leading the Likud," he said.

"These primaries are a part of the struggle we are currently conducting to find employment for 80 percent of the evacuated settlers who are still jobless, to all the farmers and the people who are still without a home. We were tossed aside and no one cares about us anymore," Yifrach added.

Meanwhile, another evacuee and former Bdolah resident Rivka Trabelsi said she had no intention of supporting the Likud.

"I did not for a second think about registering with the Likud, and I also don't believe I will vote in the general elections. I put my trust in our heavenly father, because we were let down by all the parties," she said.

What the people of Nitzan care about, according to Trabelsi is one thing: "Not Bibi or Silvan, just to get what we are entitled to."