Israel Transfers Gush Katif
Hothouses to Palestinians
(September 7, 2005)
Israel and the Palestinians reached an agreement that will allow Israel to transfer
3,500 dunams of Gush
Katif hothouses to the Palestinians in Gaza.
The issue of settler hothouses left in Gaza after Israel's
implementation of the disengagment
plan was one of the major economic issues facing
the two sides in the post-withdrawal stage of plan.
As of today, three of the six major economic issues
on the disengagement agenda have either been solved
or are close to final resolutions.
Over 200 Gush Katif farmers signed an agreement with
the Economic Cooperation Foundation (ECF), which will
purchase the hothouses for $14 million and transfer
them to the Palestinian
Authority for distribution. The ECF, funded by the
European Union and headed by Yossi
Beilin, said that former World Bank head James Wolfensohn
contributed $500,000 of his own money to ensure that
the plan went through.
The greenhouses in Gush Katif belong to over 200 farmers
who grow herbs, lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers and flowers.
A representative of the Gush Katif farmers said that
90% of the hothouses were included in the deal, while
the other 10% had already been dismantled by their owners.
The farmers will receive $4,000 per greenhouse. Palestinian
sources have said that the Palestinians originally did
not want the greenhouses because they did not want any
foreign aid to go to Jewish settlers simply for evacuating what they peceived as occupied
land. However, the 4,000 or so Palestinians that are
employed in the hothouses will now be able to hold onto
their jobs because of the agreement. On September 13,
as the last IDF soldiers left Gaza, thousands of Palestinians
stormed the former settlements and looted dozens of
the more than 4,000 hothouses during celebrations organized
by the Palestinian Authority. In addition to the looting
of the hothouses, Palestinians belonging to Hamas and Islamic
Jihad burned down numerous synagogues that were left behind by Gaza's former Jewish residents.
The widespread looting and pillaging of the greenhouses
by Gazan Palestinians has left over 800 of the 4,000
or so of them completely unusable. Repairs have been
estimated to cost over $10,000 per greenhouse. Hundreds
of these greenhouses, which averaged over $75 million
in total crop output annually, have been reduced to
bare glass houses with no hope of repair.
An agreement has also been reached regarding the demolition
of settlers' homes, which states that most of the rubble
will be recycled and reused by the Palestinians, while
toxic rubble will be buried in Israel and the Sinai.
Negotiations are also in progress concerning a new border
control system that will provide Israel will necessary
security safeguards, while allowing for more freedom
of movement for Palestinians inside Gaza. However, Israel
has stated that the Palestinians must be more vigilant
in monitoring the people and goods that flow from Gaza
into Israel, or it would make it impossible for Israel
to ever fully withdraw from the border crossings.
Sources: Jerusalem Post, Yahoo
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