Prime Minister Ariel Sharon toured Thursday the city of Ashkelon and the Nitzanim coast area to examine the possibility of relocating Gush Katif settlers en masse to the area.
He ordered building authorities to begin construction in the area and prepare infrastructures in the western Negev area to accommodate the settlers.
"The infrastructures should be ready at the beginning of May,” Sharon said. “We need to absorb people here.”
He was accompanied by Disengagement administration Head Yonatan Bassi and IDF officials.
The plan to relocate settlers to the region has sparked staunch opposition from environmental groups, who held a demonstration in protest of Sharon’s plan. The groups claim the specific region in question is a unique park of sand dunes declared in the past as a non-residential area.
Ashkelon Mayor Roni Mahatzari said, “I specifically told the prime minister that I object to construction on green lands.”
“We have two neighborhoods with all the infrastructure, and they (settlers) can easily settle there,” he said. “Sharon told us ‘You don’t have to convince me, convince them.’”
Those who participated in the tour said they were under the impression Sharon prefers to relocate the settlers to residential areas.
Earlier Society for the Protection of Nature in Nitzanim head Yair Farjun said, “We want 60-100 people to arrive and convey the message that an environmental disaster cannot take place in addition to the destruction in Gush Katif.”
The specific region in question is a unique park of sand dunes declared in the past as a non-residential area, he said.
"There is no financial, settlement or agricultural value to relocating the settlers to the Nitzanim Park," Farjun said. "This is extortion, and the government and Knesset needs to clarify to the settlers that it will not happen."
T
he struggle for the park should be public, as the park belongs to everyone, he said, adding that already existing communities along the coast could easily absorb 800 families as an alternative.
The Gush Katif settlers decided not to accompany Sharon so as not to exacerbate differences of opinion among the settlers regarding cooperation with Sharon.
The Gaza Beach Regional Council said in a press release recently “if the evil (disengagement) plan actually comes to fruition, the residents of Gush Katif want to move together to Nitzanim."
Gush Katif to be closed off after Independence Day
Environment Minister Shalom Simhon said in response to the settler plan that he opposed the move on grounds it would damage the natural surroundings.
Simhon said the Nitzanim coast is the last untouched section of Israel’s southern coast, and said he would call on Labor Party Knesset members to veto any proposal to develop the area.
Yedioth Ahronoth reported Thursday that Sharon had ordered Israel Police and the IDF to permit the public to travel to the Gush Katif area during the Passover holiday “to bid farewell to the settlements.”
Security officials recommended the area be shut down to holiday travel amid fears that thousands would attempt to remain in the region in a bid to foil the disengagement.
It is estimated Gush Katif will be sealed off immediately following Independence Day.