Several Knesset Members said yesterday that these "reports" came from none other than Bassi himself. Bassi, appointed by Prime Minister Sharon to head the Disengagement Authority, appeared at the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee yesterday. He implied there that his personnel were negotiating with some 800 families over their future lodgings.
MK Ehud Yatom of the Likud later said, however, that "after we asked questions more deeply into the matter, it turned out that there are only a few dozen families that are willing to leave voluntarily."
In fact, Bassi said today, only 25 families have signed agreements to leave their homes voluntarily before the scheduled date of the evacuation, and another 38 are interested in signing.
"If the residents don't hurry," Bassi threatened, "the Nitzanim area [prime real estate along the coast just north of Ashkelon] will be used for other purposes."
The secretariat of N'vei Dekalim, the largest of the communities threatened for demolition – it has some 2,700 people – rejected Bassi's tactics: "This is a coarse and contemptible attempt to crumble us by the 'divide and conquer' method – but it's an attempt that is clearly doomed to fail."
Bassi also said today that the community of Kfar Darom, just north of Gush Katif in Gaza, has been offered the option of moving as one to Nitzan, near Ashkelon.
The Yesha Council issued a statement today on the matter: "The data regarding the ridiculously low number of residents who have turned to the Disengagement Authority is evidence of the strength of the residents. They are standing like a buttressed wall against the intention to expel them and against the psychological warfare waged by Prime Minister Sharon."