The government voted unanimously in favor of building a new permanent community for the evacuees of Kfar Darom, which will be situated near Moshav Nir Akiva in the Netivot area.
According to the plan, the evacuees, who were put up in a residential building in Ashkelon since the Gaza pullout in 2005, will be transferred to a temporary residential site until the new town is completed.
The ministers initially disagreed on the decision. Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz expressed reservations in respect to the transfer of the evacuees to the temporary site due to the entailed costs of setting it up.
Minister Daniel Hershkowitz (Habayit Hayehudi ),chairman of the ministerial committee for assistance to the Gaza Strip evacuees, said that the government has a duty to solve the evacuees' distress once and for all and urged the approval of the decision.
"One should amend the injustice and relieve the ongoing suffering of the residents. This community already faced three transfer agreements to different locations but they were not implemented, through not fault of the residents," he stated.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu supported the decision and said he was aware of the evacuees' ongoing suffering. Steinitz finally aligned himself with the majority stance endorsing the decision at the end of the debate, which was then rendered unanimous.
Three additional towns?
Benzi Lieberman, head of the Tnufa Directorate, which is responsible of supporting the disengagement evacuees, presented the decision before the ministers and estimated that the transfer of the evacuees to the temporary site can be expected within a few months.
He expressed his hope that the government will shortly approve the creation of three additional towns for disengagement evacuees.
Two weeks ago the government approved the inclusion of the Gush Katif evacuees' communities in the national priority plan ,which was made possible due to a criteria according to which any town founded less than five years ago or one with a seven-fold increase in population should be included in the plan.