The High Court ruled today (Thursday) in favor of the homeless residents on a petition brought by Atty. Yossi Fuchs of the Land of Israel Legal Forum and several residents. They had maintained that though their requests for an advance compensation payment had been approved by the relevant committee, the Disengagement Authority suddenly added another condition that most of the former residents cannot meet: The Authority demanded that they sign a form stating they had left their former homes within 48 hours of having been ordered to do so.
Atty. Fuchs told the Court that the extra condition is illegal, as "most of the families owned a home there, and according to Clauses 32-43 of the Evacuation/Compensation Law, their right to compensation is absolute, regardless of when they left the area."
Fuchs said that the government came up with this new decree in the days preceding the High Holidays, "after dozens of families had already received the advance payment, even though they did not leave within the prescribed 48 hours."
The advance payments - 50,000 shekels (less than $11,000) - were designed, Fuchs said, "to help Israeli citizens who de facto became homeless refugees who do not even have winter clothing, who do not have jobs, and who will not receive their final compensation until the application process reaches the finish line."
The Court ruled that the government must pay the advance payments within seven days - and if not, Chief Justice Barak said, the residents should return to him.
In a Knesset Economics Committee session this week, Chairman Amnon Cohen (Shas) said that the "draconian bureaucracy" of the Disengagement Authority had brought some of the expellees to near-poverty.
Several expelled residents participated in the session, explaining how the uprooting had impoverished them.
Yehuda Gross, formerly of N'vei Dekalim, said that had lived in the area for 23 years, and owned a store for picture-frames and keys. "Just a half-year ago I finished paying the mortgage payments on the store," he said, "yet now I am not eligible for unemployment because I was self-employed. I did not even receive the 'adjustment' payment, because of all the procedures and bureaucracy... I don't even have winter coats or clothing for our children because if I open the container in which our belongings are packed, the insurance will be nullified - and the opening itself costs money."
Nachum Hadad, a grocery store owner from Nisanit, where he lived for 21 years, said, "I can't look at my children in the eye. I worked all my life, and suddenly I have become a welfare case, with welfare workers coming to see me. We exist today only from loans and gifts."
Guy Netanel of Nisanit said that he owned a sewing workshop where he employed 70 workers at the Erez Crossing, and that he began the process of trying to transfer it to Ashkelon a year ago - well before the expulsion. "Those attempts cost me more than I made all my life," he said, noting that he is now in debt to the tune of one million shekels. "I feel like a stranger in the country, even though I am an IDF officer who does 60 days of reserve duty a year."
Debbie Rosen lived in N'vei Dekalim for 20 years and served as a spokesperson for the Regional Council. "The Authority demanded that I produce 1st-grade report cards of my children as proof of how long I lived there," she told the Knesset committee. "Many of the expelled residents see no reason to get up in the morning, after having worked hard all their lives... The re-training courses being offered in Ashkelon are totally not appropriate," saying she is not quite cut out to be an electrician or a kashrut supervisor.
MK Uri Ariel (National Union) said that the Authority's demands for proof of residence are ridiculous: "The Authority is hooked up directly to the computers of the Interior Ministry and the Electric Company, and can easily find the information there." Meretz MK Avshalom Villan agreed as well that the bureaucracy was unnecessarily bothersome.
The Director of the Industry and Trade Ministry, Raanan Dinur, said his office is responsible for finding employment solutions for the evictees, "and we will accompany them until June 2006, or even longer, if necessary." He said that his office is dealing with 520 self-employed workers, 720 salaried workers, and 300 others who worked in Gush Katif but did not live there.
"We have a bank of 1,420 jobs," Dinur said, "and we are in the process of trying to match up jobs with workers - but we know that often the expellees are used to higher salaries than some of these jobs offer." Former farmers from Bdolach now living in the Nitzan pre-fab site say they are not willing to work ten-hour days in a factory and then come home with a tiny fraction of what they used to earn.
Committee Chairman Cohen said that people were forced to borrow gray-market money because of the "obtuseness of the Disengagement Authority." "The criteria for receiving compensation must be eased," he said, "and people should not be forced to bring grocery store receipts from years ago or their children's 3rd-grade report cards as proof of how many years they lived there... The government must pay unemployment even to those who are self-employed, since it was the one that closed their businesses."
Atty. Fuchs told the Court that the extra condition is illegal, as "most of the families owned a home there, and according to Clauses 32-43 of the Evacuation/Compensation Law, their right to compensation is absolute, regardless of when they left the area."
Fuchs said that the government came up with this new decree in the days preceding the High Holidays, "after dozens of families had already received the advance payment, even though they did not leave within the prescribed 48 hours."
The advance payments - 50,000 shekels (less than $11,000) - were designed, Fuchs said, "to help Israeli citizens who de facto became homeless refugees who do not even have winter clothing, who do not have jobs, and who will not receive their final compensation until the application process reaches the finish line."
The Court ruled that the government must pay the advance payments within seven days - and if not, Chief Justice Barak said, the residents should return to him.
In a Knesset Economics Committee session this week, Chairman Amnon Cohen (Shas) said that the "draconian bureaucracy" of the Disengagement Authority had brought some of the expellees to near-poverty.
Several expelled residents participated in the session, explaining how the uprooting had impoverished them.
Yehuda Gross, formerly of N'vei Dekalim, said that had lived in the area for 23 years, and owned a store for picture-frames and keys. "Just a half-year ago I finished paying the mortgage payments on the store," he said, "yet now I am not eligible for unemployment because I was self-employed. I did not even receive the 'adjustment' payment, because of all the procedures and bureaucracy... I don't even have winter coats or clothing for our children because if I open the container in which our belongings are packed, the insurance will be nullified - and the opening itself costs money."
Nachum Hadad, a grocery store owner from Nisanit, where he lived for 21 years, said, "I can't look at my children in the eye. I worked all my life, and suddenly I have become a welfare case, with welfare workers coming to see me. We exist today only from loans and gifts."
Guy Netanel of Nisanit said that he owned a sewing workshop where he employed 70 workers at the Erez Crossing, and that he began the process of trying to transfer it to Ashkelon a year ago - well before the expulsion. "Those attempts cost me more than I made all my life," he said, noting that he is now in debt to the tune of one million shekels. "I feel like a stranger in the country, even though I am an IDF officer who does 60 days of reserve duty a year."
Debbie Rosen lived in N'vei Dekalim for 20 years and served as a spokesperson for the Regional Council. "The Authority demanded that I produce 1st-grade report cards of my children as proof of how long I lived there," she told the Knesset committee. "Many of the expelled residents see no reason to get up in the morning, after having worked hard all their lives... The re-training courses being offered in Ashkelon are totally not appropriate," saying she is not quite cut out to be an electrician or a kashrut supervisor.
MK Uri Ariel (National Union) said that the Authority's demands for proof of residence are ridiculous: "The Authority is hooked up directly to the computers of the Interior Ministry and the Electric Company, and can easily find the information there." Meretz MK Avshalom Villan agreed as well that the bureaucracy was unnecessarily bothersome.
The Director of the Industry and Trade Ministry, Raanan Dinur, said his office is responsible for finding employment solutions for the evictees, "and we will accompany them until June 2006, or even longer, if necessary." He said that his office is dealing with 520 self-employed workers, 720 salaried workers, and 300 others who worked in Gush Katif but did not live there.
"We have a bank of 1,420 jobs," Dinur said, "and we are in the process of trying to match up jobs with workers - but we know that often the expellees are used to higher salaries than some of these jobs offer." Former farmers from Bdolach now living in the Nitzan pre-fab site say they are not willing to work ten-hour days in a factory and then come home with a tiny fraction of what they used to earn.
Committee Chairman Cohen said that people were forced to borrow gray-market money because of the "obtuseness of the Disengagement Authority." "The criteria for receiving compensation must be eased," he said, "and people should not be forced to bring grocery store receipts from years ago or their children's 3rd-grade report cards as proof of how many years they lived there... The government must pay unemployment even to those who are self-employed, since it was the one that closed their businesses."