Taste of home promised to settlers
Village homes, a beachfront view, orchards, and a water park – Yedioth Ahronoth uncovers new plans for receiving Gaza setters in southern town of Nitzanim
TEL AVIV - Israel is promising settlers who will be evacuated during its pullout plan a little taste of home.
The desert community of Nitzanim will undergo a massive facelift after the absorption of hundreds of settler families slated for evacuation under Israel's pullout plan, and will feature modern structures reminicent of their former homes, the Yedioth Ahronoth said on Monday.
Yedioth has uncovered plans a plan drafted by the Interior Ministry and land developers that unifies the existing town of Nitzan with a new neighborhod, which will house settlers from all 21 settlements Israel plans to remove, into the new municipality of Nitzanim.
Approximately 2000 housing units will be built as low-rise buildings. The government is hoping all 1700 families from Gaza will move to Nitzanim.
During a meeting on Sunday between representatives of Gaza settlers and Nitzanim housing project managers, about 800 families signed deals to relocate to the town, which plans on modeling the houses to look like settler homes in Gaza in a bid to make the new residents feel at home.
The plan even includes reconstructing the roofs of the new homes to match those of houses in Gaza settlements.
Citrus trees and theme parks
The new community will have a village-like character and will face the Mediterranean Sea. Although some orchards will be uprooted to make way for the new homes, enough will remain to ensure that a good part of the new residents of Nitzahim will be greeted with citrus trees as they look out from their windows, the plan states.
Nature reserve authorities have said no new structures will be built to block the ocean and the spacious green scenery from the vantage points of the new homes.
On the margins of the town, two hilltops will be the site of a large educational campus, next to which an industrial and business district will be built.
The construction of homes in Nitzanim's sand dunes, home to several endangered species, has been ruled out. However, two theme parks will be built in the heart of the reserve area, with one lying directly on the beach and the second will contain pools and a water theme park.
The new community will be linked to Tel Aviv by a new rail link and station, and the area will be served by new junctions on the Ashkelon – Tel Aviv highway.
The plan will be submitted for approval to the national planning council on August 21, after which it will be handed over to local regional councils who will head the construction projects, which will take an estimated three years to complete.
