(IsraelNN.com) Gazan Arabs who were employed by Israeli farmers in Gush Katif until the 2005 eviction of Jews from the region are seeking ways to sue their former employers for "wrongful dismissal" and other employee benefits.

The uprooting of the vibrant Jewish communities and economy of Gush Katif during the Sharon Administration's "disengagement" from Gaza led to the instant unemployment of about 10,000 people who worked in agriculture and related industries, including 5,000 Arabs from the Palestinian Authority. As of June 2008, over 50 percent of former Gush Katif residents still find themselves unemployed.

According to an Israel TV Channel One report, the SELA Administration, which was set up to assist Disengagement evictees to rebuild their lives and communities, told former Gush Katif residents, employers and businessmen that the Arab claims are "your problem." The government has claimed that compensation funds paid to former Gush Katif residents included a fund to be used for former employees of the Jewish industries kicked out of Gaza. 

Gush Katif activists counter that compensation payments thus far have not covered even the basic needs of the evictees themselves.

Yossi Schwartz, a former owner of a clothing factory interviewed for the Channel One report, said that former workers' claims could be more than one million NIS in his case alone. Mr. Schwartz, like so many of his former neighbors, is still unemployed.