Settler leaders to end boycott of Disengagement Admin

Leaders of the Israeli settlers in the Gaza Strip are about to give up their boycott of the Disengagement Administration (Sela), the government agency in charge of coordinating the evacuation of the settlers from the area, the Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported on Monday.

The decision came on the heels of a recent Israeli High Court decision that promised some settlers additional compensation for giving up their homes – but only if they applied through the Disengagment Administration.

The court ruling accepted the settlers’ demand that compensation should be based on individual assessments on their houses and property, rather than the standard formula based on house size that was established in the original compensation law. The new approach will mean larger payments for settlers who have made improvements around their homes, such developing gardens or adding swimming pools.

The court ruled, however, that settlers must submit requests by July 9 to be eligible for the individual assessment. That caused leaders of the settler movement to worry that individual settler families would begin applying on their own to Sela – a move that some would interpret as surrender in the fight against the pullout and acceptance of compensation and voluntary evacuation.

 To prevent that, the leadership decided to call on residents to sign a form consenting to the property assessments, then to submit a consolidated group filing.

‘Many object to this, but it is a bitter pill that must be swallowed for the sake of our unity, so they won’t divide and conquer,’ one settler leader, Lior Khalfa, chairman of the Neveh Dekalim secretariat, told the Israeli newspaper Ha’aretz.

Making the settlers worry about their compensation could help the Israeli government to rein in the anti-disengagement movement.  Other settlers will be discouraged to know that the settlers to be evacuated are rushing to Sela to submit their forms for compensation.