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The Human Cost of Disengagement

(Ministry of Foreign Affairs) * Against the background of more than four years of terrorist bloodshed, Israel has initiated its Disengagement Plan in the Gaza Strip and northern Samaria, both to enhance its security and to put the peace process with the Palestinians back in motion. * The plan requires a considerable sacrifice on the part of some 1,700 families, or about 8,000 people, who must leave the homes and livelihoods they have built over the course of several decades. * In the short term, it is these settlers who are paying the greatest part of the price for peace. It is they who were encouraged by previous governments to settle barren land and turn it into homes, gardens, and farms, in the same pioneering spirit that built the State of Israel. They are now being asked to relinquish these accomplishments for the greater good. * Descriptions of the 25 settlements included in the Disengagement Plan show what some of Israel's pioneers are giving up. * Removing the Jewish communities from the Gaza Strip and northern Samaria means: o 3 high schools, 7 elementary schools, 36 kindergartens, and 42 day-care centers will be closed o 5,000 schoolchildren will need to find new schools o 38 synagogues will be dismantled o 166 Israeli farmers will lose their livelihoods - plus some 5,000 of their Palestinian workers o 48 graves in the Gush Katif Cemetery, including those of six residents murdered by terrorists, will be exhumed and moved to Israel.
2005-08-01 00:00:00
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