By Harinder Mishra
Jerusalem, Sept. 7: The Israeli Cabinet on Sunday discussed an initiative proposing voluntary evacuation of and compensation for settlers living in West Bank under any future peace agreement with Palestinians, even as some members of the ruling Kadima party questioned the "timing" of such a move.
"In light of the fact it is possible we will need to make decisions in the future that will involve the evacuation of residents, it is appropriate that we should already prepare for this now and think about its significance, especially while serious (peace) negotiations are being held," Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said at the beginning of the debate on the evacuation bill.
He said there were allegations that adequate preparations were not made before Israel pulled its settlers out of Gaza Strip in 2005.
"Over the last two years, they charged us with not having prepared in an appropriate fashion certain things connected to the disengagement (evacuation from Gaza) that caused particular suffering to the residents — and now they are saying it’s too early to talk about this," Mr Olmert said. It was still good to think about how to prepare in the right manner, the Premier added.
The evacuation-compensation bill attempts to facilitate the relocation of any West Bank resident who is willing to do it on his own as part of any future peace agreement with the Palestinian Authority.
However, the debate caused a stir in the Cabinet as several ministers criticised the Prime Minister’s move just two weeks prior to the ruling Kadima party primaries to choose its leader, who is likely to succeed Mr Olmert.
The "timing" cannot be "coincidental" as it is most likely meant to hinder any chances that the next Kadima chairman would be able to include any of the right-wing parties in the coalition, they said.
Prior to the meeting, finance minister Ronnie Bar-On had said that he does not believe that "the Israeli public or its political leadership were ready to discuss the bill".
—PTI
