Laborers employed by the Jewish Agency, mostly Arabs, continued today to dismantle buildings and equipment in form settlements in the Yamit region of northern Sinai without incident. Soldiers sent to protect the workers from possible assaults by militants opposed to Israel’s withdrawal from Sinai had little to do as greenhouses and farm implements at Ugda villege were disassembled for relocation in Israel.
The Jewish Agency is concentrating its dismantling efforts on Jewish settlements closest to the Israeli border. They want everything removed from that region by April 25, the Sinai pull-out deadline, so as not to facilitate the settlement of Egyptian civilians near the border.
Yamit, the largest Israeli town in Sinai, is being left to the last. It is there that members of the Stop the Withdrawal movement and their followers are digging in for what they vow will be the last-ditch resistance should the army attempt to remove them.
The Yamit settlers are concerned chiefly with the compensation they will get from the government for relocating. Matitychu Schmuelevitz, director general of the Prime Ministers Office, assured a group of Yamit businessmen today that the compensation bill now in the Knesset Finance Committee will not supersede previous agreements reached with the government.
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