The Israeli government plans to offer about 7 500 Jewish settlers it wants to evacuate from the Gaza Strip a choice of four compensation options, Ha’aretz daily reported on Monday.
The settlers can choose between a replacement house of similar quality anywhere inside Israel proper, free land in priority areas in Israel that the government would like to see populated by the settlers, or payment either according to a standard compensation table or to an individual evaluation by a government assessor.
The Israeli Justice Ministry believes the draft legislation laying out the four options will be submitted to the Cabinet in the autumn.
About 1 500 families in Gaza and another 100 in four West Bank settlements that Premier Ariel Sharon wants to evacuate along with the Gaza settlements will be eligible for the compensation.
Sharon wants to withdraw unilaterally from the Gaza Strip and a small area in the northern West Bank by the end of 2005, but he still faces fierce political and popular opposition from right-wing Israelis.
In an attempt to bypass that opposition, the premier is currently holding negotiations with two religious parties and the largest opposition Labour Party on forming a new government.
More than 130 000 settlers and their supporters formed an almost 100km-long human chain from Gaza to Jerusalem on Sunday evening to protest his withdrawal plan. — Sapa-DPA