With two days to before Sinai must be cleared of all Israeli civilians, the army and workers employed by the Jewish Agency continued today to dismantle structures and equipment for relocation inside Israel. Resistance is also continuing to Israel’s withdrawal from Sinai, scheduled to be completed by April 25.
Education Minister Zevulun Hammer, a leader of the National Religious Party, visited the Yamit area today to talk to squatters, most of them members of his own party. The squatters have taken over buildings abandoned by the original settlers. In Talmei Yosef, near Yamit, a group of women have been spending the daylight hours on the roof of one such building for the past two weeks. So far they have succeeded in preventing the structure from being taken down and loaded in trucks.
Hammer climbed to the roof to confer with them. As has been the case with other government officials who have come to the region, he apparently listened rather than talked. Wherever he went, the squatters urged him to influence the government to cancel its plans to withdraw from Sinai, even if that meant abrogating the peace treaty with Egypt.
While the minister was so engaged, truckloads of furniture and household effects were moving northward from Yamit and surrounding villages to relocation sites in Israel. The army hired the trucks to help the residents transport their moveable property.
Although the army has set March 31 as the deadline for evacuation, the government may give some residents permission to stay an until mid-April if their new homes in Israel are not ready for occupancy. Those who do remain would be without electricity and running water.
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
