The cabinet is expected to vote in favor of the plan by a wide majority after two senior ministers received assurances that the government will allow separate votes on each of the four phases of the plan, which will entail the destruction of 25 Jewish communities in Gaza and northern Samaria. The conditioned support of Education Minister Limor Livnat and Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom gives Sharon a majority of 16 against five dissenters.
Netanyahu and Livnat said in the fall they would join 13 Likud Knesset members who voted against the first reading of the bill, but they later reversed their positions following pressure from the prime minister. This time, however, Netanyahu told Israel's Channel 2 Meet the Press program that he will follow his conscience in Sunday's cabinet vote. "In a democracy, everyone has an obligation to express his opinion," he said.
Netanyahu said that his vote against the plan is not personal and that Sharon, when he was a minister and Netanyahu headed the government, sometimes voted against his polices. "I want to bring this [bill] to a national referendum, which the Knesset is against, but this is not to say I cannot express my opinion," he explained.
Ministers Tzachi Nanegbi, Natan Sharansky, Yisrael Katz and Danny Naveh also have come out against the disengagement plan. The cabinet vote will be on the plan without the stipulation in the first version last summer that "there is nothing in this decision that is in favor of evacuating communities." The vote will allow the government to issue expulsion orders to more than 8,000 residents who are to be forced to leave their homes in return for monetary compensation.
The Gaza Coast Regional Council and several Gush Katif residents have appealed to the High Court to invalidate the law on the grounds that it violates basic human rights and dignity that are guaranteed by Israeli law. The court Friday gave the government 30 days to respond to the petition but refused the petitioners' request that the bill not take effect until the court rules its validity.
If residents do not agree to leave their homes voluntarily, the government plans to expel by them force in the summer.
The cabinet also is to vote Sunday on the separation fence route which would exclude the city of Ariel in Samaria and most of the Jewish communities in the southern Hevron hills. The proposed fence includes Maale Adumim, east of Jerusalem, and provides for a security wall to protect towns in Gush Etzion, including Efrat, south of Jerusalem. The new route follows judicial recommendations and includes only seven per cent of land beyond the 1967 borders instead of 16 per cent as originally proposed.
Netanyahu and Livnat said in the fall they would join 13 Likud Knesset members who voted against the first reading of the bill, but they later reversed their positions following pressure from the prime minister. This time, however, Netanyahu told Israel's Channel 2 Meet the Press program that he will follow his conscience in Sunday's cabinet vote. "In a democracy, everyone has an obligation to express his opinion," he said.
Netanyahu said that his vote against the plan is not personal and that Sharon, when he was a minister and Netanyahu headed the government, sometimes voted against his polices. "I want to bring this [bill] to a national referendum, which the Knesset is against, but this is not to say I cannot express my opinion," he explained.
Ministers Tzachi Nanegbi, Natan Sharansky, Yisrael Katz and Danny Naveh also have come out against the disengagement plan. The cabinet vote will be on the plan without the stipulation in the first version last summer that "there is nothing in this decision that is in favor of evacuating communities." The vote will allow the government to issue expulsion orders to more than 8,000 residents who are to be forced to leave their homes in return for monetary compensation.
The Gaza Coast Regional Council and several Gush Katif residents have appealed to the High Court to invalidate the law on the grounds that it violates basic human rights and dignity that are guaranteed by Israeli law. The court Friday gave the government 30 days to respond to the petition but refused the petitioners' request that the bill not take effect until the court rules its validity.
If residents do not agree to leave their homes voluntarily, the government plans to expel by them force in the summer.
The cabinet also is to vote Sunday on the separation fence route which would exclude the city of Ariel in Samaria and most of the Jewish communities in the southern Hevron hills. The proposed fence includes Maale Adumim, east of Jerusalem, and provides for a security wall to protect towns in Gush Etzion, including Efrat, south of Jerusalem. The new route follows judicial recommendations and includes only seven per cent of land beyond the 1967 borders instead of 16 per cent as originally proposed.