The official Committee of Inquiry into the State’s handling of the thousands of people expelled from Gush Katif in 2005 will hold its first session Sunday. The first testimony will be given by Yonatan Bassi, who headed the ‘Sela Administration’ that was meant to coordinate assistance to the expellees.
The committee will look into several matters, including the efforts to rehabilitate the expellees, the planning and building of permanent homes for the expellees, and legal compensation for agriculturalists and businessmen, as specified by the ‘Expulsion / Compensation Law.’
Severe deficiencies
The committee was established following a decision by the Knesset’s State Control Committee as well as a reports by State Comptroller and Ombudsman, Judge (ret.) Micha Lindenstrauss, who pointed out severe deficiencies in the State’s handling of the people it expelled from Gush Katif.
In his first report, in March 2006, State Comptroller Micha Lidenstrauss found that the Sela Authority, which was responsible for resettling the evacuees, had seriously failed to find permanent housing solutions for them.
This previous January, Lindenstrauss released a second report on the evacuees stating that since his first report, “Three and a half years have passed, and unfortunately the state of affairs is still very difficult.”
The Comptroller said that out of 1,113 families waiting for permanent homes, only 605 had received plots of land. Out of those, only 130 had begun construction, and a scarce 50 had completed a new home. The evacuees are dependent on the government at every step of the process towards building their new homes.
Jewish Home MK, Zevulun Orlev, spearheaded a Knesset initiative to establish an official state committee of inquiry into the handling of the evacuees.
It is headed by former Deputy Supreme Court President, Judge (ret.) Eliyahu Matza, and its members are Dr. Moshe Ravid and Prof. Yedidya Stern.The committee’s first session will take place at the Reich Hotel in Jerusalem.
One hour before the committee begins sitting, Gush Katif expellees will hold a gathering outside the hotel in which they will present information to the media about their plight during the Expulsion and since then.
According to News1, the Head of the Gush Katif Residents’ Council Doron Ben-Shlomi, said that the committee was a “necessary constraint” because “for four years, the expellees are scurrying from office to office in the various branches of government, and receiving only partial solutions.”