Some 150 expellees demonstrated today, for the fourth straight day, on the Ashkelon highway. Blocking the highway near the hastily-constructed town of Nitzan - where the largest amount of expelled families live as they wait for their permanent communities to be planned and built - the protestors demand solutions for their unemployment and inability to resume the farming in which they were engaged while living Gush Katif.
The numbers submitted to the Finance Committee today, ten months after the expulsion, include the following:
* 51% of the expellees are still unemployed
* 70% of the expellees living in Nitzan are unemployed
* 113 families - 7% - are still living in hotels, guest houses and tent sites
* Just 38 out of 220 people who ran functional farms or agricultural enterprises have returned to such work
* 2% of the families live in permanent housing
The Agricultural Ministry recently opened a retraining course for people wanting to be -- shepherds! The six-week course has attracted not only former Gush Katif residents, but also others who wish to change agricultural professions. Among the topics covered in the course are sheep care, milking, nourishment, preparing for breeding and birth, sheep diseases, making professional decisions, planning structures, and financial flock planning.
Israel has a total of 2,400 shepherds in the Jewish, Arab and Bedouin sectors - a number that has grown in recent years because of the demand for sheep cheese and meats.
The numbers submitted to the Finance Committee today, ten months after the expulsion, include the following:
* 51% of the expellees are still unemployed
* 70% of the expellees living in Nitzan are unemployed
* 113 families - 7% - are still living in hotels, guest houses and tent sites
* Just 38 out of 220 people who ran functional farms or agricultural enterprises have returned to such work
* 2% of the families live in permanent housing
The Agricultural Ministry recently opened a retraining course for people wanting to be -- shepherds! The six-week course has attracted not only former Gush Katif residents, but also others who wish to change agricultural professions. Among the topics covered in the course are sheep care, milking, nourishment, preparing for breeding and birth, sheep diseases, making professional decisions, planning structures, and financial flock planning.
Israel has a total of 2,400 shepherds in the Jewish, Arab and Bedouin sectors - a number that has grown in recent years because of the demand for sheep cheese and meats.