Finance Committee head Moshe Gafni spoke at the Katif conference and explained his controversial statement at the Haaretz conference a month ago in which he claimed that "the Palestinians were here before us." Gafni said he had been referring to left-wing Kibbutzim when he said this statement and meant to say that they had no justification for being there besides the holy Torah, as this justifies our being here.
Gafni said he had not sold Gush Katif and had voted against it but at the time they had been in the opposition and only joined the government later after Tommy Lapid, Yair Lapid's father, left the government.
Gafni said he had transferred 50 million more shekels to Gush Katif evacuees today and had legislated the transfer of 600 to 800 million NIS, but stated that this was an "embarrassment" since the state had expelled people and institutions and had a duty towards them which it had not fulfilled.