Gaza evacuees do not wish to be assimilated. The never-ending evacuation

Haaretz Editorial, 5/08/07. The evacuees of Gush Katif, who are having a hard time putting their lives back together, cannot be envied. Their situation is similar to that of middle-aged new immigrants, although they are not confronted by a language barrier and each has received some $500,000 in compensation. The main difficulty in absorbing them stems from the fact that they left behind an economic paradise, which was subsidized by the state, and most lack the professional skills needed for a free-market economy. In this, they are different from the Russian immigrants who were successfully absorbed in Israel.

Why are the evacuees unable to rebuild the businesses they left behind in Gush Katif, where they acquired their professional knowledge and experience? The first reason is that their businesses were not profitable even in Gush Katif. The second reason is they no longer enjoy cheap Palestinian labor, nearly free water, free land, subsidized electricity and tremendous tax benefits. The Gush Katif evacuees' lobby in the Knesset is trying to acquire even more compensation, each time for something else. It is very likely that this lobby will succeed, considering settlers' lobby victories of the past.

A new campaign related to the Gush Katif evacuees has recently begun: In addition to the demand for full pension benefits starting at age 46, they want more compensation for every child born in Gush Katif. In early July, a plan was presented to establish a new community called Mirsham in the Lachish region, for some of the Kfar Darom evacuees. Another new community, Givat Hazan, is intended to settle some of the residents of Neveh Dekalim. This is because of the evacuees' insistence that they not be absorbed into other communities in the area where permits have already been issued for the construction of thousands of new homes. Unfortunately, the evacuees do not wish to be assimilated, not even in communities with other evacuees. Each group selects several dozen families for its own dream community - built at the state's expense.