The deal has been in the works for at least three months, with intermittent reports of failure and success, and was finalized just two weeks ago. The families have still not moved in, however, as the contractor has still not completed refurbishing the apartments.
The first group of ten apartments is to be ready a week from now, with another ten units ready each week thereafter. The contractor has said, however, that he would try to rush up the work, in the knowledge that a drawn-out process of moving out of Be'er Sheva and into Ashkelon would cause the people of Kfar Darom many problems.
"Mainly," one resident said, "it will cause us a problem with our school - the one that we transplanted from Kfar Darom to here. If half the families are in Be'er Sheva and half in Ashkelon, where should the school be?" He said that at present, the opening-day ceremony for the Kfar Darom school is scheduled for the 4th day of Kislev, only two weeks from now, "but we will play it by ear."
Though used to the wide open outdoor spaces of their rural town, the families of Kfar Darom agreed within days of their expulsion to move to the urban high-rise apartment building. "Our goal is to be with the people, to remain in the center, to be able to have an influence," one resident said, just days after he, his family and their neighbors were forcibly plucked out of their homes and dropped off in Be'er Sheva.
The delay in moving into the building was caused by bureaucratic entanglements regarding the purchase of the building. In the end, the government did not purchase the entire building, but only 26 apartments; the Disengagement Authority will rent additional apartments as needed.