Even as the Council leaders are apparently about to begin a hunger strike in protest of the government's plan to abandon Gaza and northern Samaria and uproot their Jewish residents, they are also involved in preparing new homes for the expelled residents. Some view it as hypocrisy, while others say it's being necessarily realistic.
Attorney Yitzchak Meron heads a group of dozens of lawyers who are working, without pay, to help secure rights – and a place to live – for the residents who many soon find themselves with no home. Several lawyers are now working to ensure that the area of Nitsanim, a coastal region north of Ashkelon, is cleared for the Gush Katif residents.
Atty. Meron explained to Arutz-7 today that, contrary to media reports, no one "appointed" him or his colleagues to find housing for the residents. "We are quite opposed to the disengagement," he said, " but we devised a strategy: While working against the disengagement, we also work to improve the terrible content and terms of the disengagement bill as if we don't object to the disengagement itself. This means that we are trying to ensure that if the worst actually happens, and if the bulldozers come and knock down these Jews' houses, that they will not be thrown to the dogs."
Meron said that he asked MK Tzvi Hendel, one of the leaders of the anti-disengagement campaign and a founding resident of a Gush Katif town, "where does he think the residents of Gush Katif would want to go, if the worst happens. He answered that he thinks the Nitsanim area is best, because it has the same type of land for the kind of farming that they do, and is close to their extended families, etc. So this is what we're trying to do. We want the law to stipulate clearly that Nitsanim will be reserved for them, because if not, the government will probably want to throw them to the Halutza area [southeast of Gaza, along the Sinai border], or somewhere like that. We feel that this uprooting plan is a terrible thing, and we will fight it – the residents will not move from their homes until the very last second – but just as people take insurance, and just as the Patriarch Jacob divided his camp into two, we also are taking all precautions."
Meron explained that the area of Nitsanim is approximately the size of the Gush Katif bloc of communities, and can potentially be built the same way. At present, a nature reserve and an IDF base are located in Nitsanim.
MK Hendel, for his part, was unable to be contacted on this issue, as he was involved in committee meetings all day regarding the Compensation/Evacuation Bill, which he is trying to either thwart or improve. PM Sharon has said that he wants it passed by the Knesset Finance Committee, with or without the improvements that the committee wishes to insert, by Monday. Hendel's spokesman told Arutz-7 today, "MK Hendel is a responsible leader, and at the same time that he's trying to stop the disengagement from going through, he also feels a responsibility towards the residents in case he does not succeed. Many of the residents themselves have come up and asked him, what will happen to them if they find themselves in a few months with no place to go."
But some say that while trying to solve one problem, he is causing another. Kach activist Itamar Ben-Gvir told the Jerusalem Post that in fighting the disengagement, "the most vital thing is our belief in the path and our victory, and if these people do not believe in those things then they should quit and go home."
Pinchas Wallerstein, a leading member of the Yesha Council, was contacted this afternoon only hours after he arrived in Israel following a trip to the U.S. He said that he knows nothing of this development, but, "in principle, there is no room for moves of this type – certainly not before a national referendum on the issue is held."
Attorney Yitzchak Meron heads a group of dozens of lawyers who are working, without pay, to help secure rights – and a place to live – for the residents who many soon find themselves with no home. Several lawyers are now working to ensure that the area of Nitsanim, a coastal region north of Ashkelon, is cleared for the Gush Katif residents.
Atty. Meron explained to Arutz-7 today that, contrary to media reports, no one "appointed" him or his colleagues to find housing for the residents. "We are quite opposed to the disengagement," he said, " but we devised a strategy: While working against the disengagement, we also work to improve the terrible content and terms of the disengagement bill as if we don't object to the disengagement itself. This means that we are trying to ensure that if the worst actually happens, and if the bulldozers come and knock down these Jews' houses, that they will not be thrown to the dogs."
Meron said that he asked MK Tzvi Hendel, one of the leaders of the anti-disengagement campaign and a founding resident of a Gush Katif town, "where does he think the residents of Gush Katif would want to go, if the worst happens. He answered that he thinks the Nitsanim area is best, because it has the same type of land for the kind of farming that they do, and is close to their extended families, etc. So this is what we're trying to do. We want the law to stipulate clearly that Nitsanim will be reserved for them, because if not, the government will probably want to throw them to the Halutza area [southeast of Gaza, along the Sinai border], or somewhere like that. We feel that this uprooting plan is a terrible thing, and we will fight it – the residents will not move from their homes until the very last second – but just as people take insurance, and just as the Patriarch Jacob divided his camp into two, we also are taking all precautions."
Meron explained that the area of Nitsanim is approximately the size of the Gush Katif bloc of communities, and can potentially be built the same way. At present, a nature reserve and an IDF base are located in Nitsanim.
MK Hendel, for his part, was unable to be contacted on this issue, as he was involved in committee meetings all day regarding the Compensation/Evacuation Bill, which he is trying to either thwart or improve. PM Sharon has said that he wants it passed by the Knesset Finance Committee, with or without the improvements that the committee wishes to insert, by Monday. Hendel's spokesman told Arutz-7 today, "MK Hendel is a responsible leader, and at the same time that he's trying to stop the disengagement from going through, he also feels a responsibility towards the residents in case he does not succeed. Many of the residents themselves have come up and asked him, what will happen to them if they find themselves in a few months with no place to go."
But some say that while trying to solve one problem, he is causing another. Kach activist Itamar Ben-Gvir told the Jerusalem Post that in fighting the disengagement, "the most vital thing is our belief in the path and our victory, and if these people do not believe in those things then they should quit and go home."
Pinchas Wallerstein, a leading member of the Yesha Council, was contacted this afternoon only hours after he arrived in Israel following a trip to the U.S. He said that he knows nothing of this development, but, "in principle, there is no room for moves of this type – certainly not before a national referendum on the issue is held."