Inquiry commission: State failed in rehabilitating evacuees
Panel headed by retired Supreme Court Justice Eliyahu Matza issues report saying treatment of Gaza, northern West Bank evacuees 'riddled with failures,' calls on government to make their rehabilitation national mission
The state commission of inquiry on the handling of the Gush Katif and northern West Bank evacuees filed its interim report Tuesday, in which it determined that the responsibility for the delay in the evacuees' rehabilitation lies with the authorities and with some of the evacuees.
Retired Supreme Court Justice Eliyahu Matza, who heads the commission, called the State's treatment of the evacuees a "failure," and urged the government to rectify the situation by December 31, 2009 or else the commission's final report will offer an alternative solution.
"The commission found that the State's handling of the evacuees has been riddled with failures, and it has yet to carry out its duty to rehabilitate them," said the report, "As time went on, the importance and urgency of the evacuee issue waned."
The report said the rehabilitation of the evacuees must be defined as a national mission and demanded a conceptual change within the government offices.
"In advancing diplomatic and security-related goals, the State harmed a large segment of the population…the removal of the evacuees from their homes (during the Disengagement), the expropriation of the real estate assets that they held, the cutting off of their sources of income and disconnection from their varied areas of life - all this took less than two weeks," the panel said in the report, which was handed to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
"But the rehabilitation of these families has still not finished today, more than four years after the evacuation. Worse than this, it appears that the end is not in sight."
Matza (center) presents report to MKs Yoel Hasson (L) and Reuven Rivlin (Photo: Gil Yohanan)
Doron Ben-Shlomi, who heads the committee of former Gush Katif evacuees, said, "We are prepared for any type of negotiations to (implement the report's findings) as soon as possible. I call on Netanyahu to implement the report in its entirety."
Hagit Yaron, a former resident of the Neve Dekalim settlement in Gaza, said, "The government is not doing enough. I hope the PM will take responsibility and bring and end to this saga."
Knesset Member Zevulun Orlev (Habayit Hayehudi) said following the report's presentation that it "legitimizes the evacuees' claims," adding that the current situation borders on "disgraceful" and constitutes "an infringement of basic human rights."
In response to the report, the SELA Administration for Assistance to Settlers from the Gaza Strip and Northern Samaria claimed that "many evacuees also contributed to the current situation…they could have already worked towards building a permanent residence.
"Many former settlers who worked in agriculture could have taken advantage of their right to receive a piece of land and begin cultivating it," according to SELA.
SELA rejected some of the panel's claims, saying that over the past four years it had worked towards establishing 23 communities designated for evacuees and conducted negotiations to settle 1,400 Gush Katif families in various communities.
