Sinai Evacuation in Slow Motion

With less than 36 hours to go before the Yamit area and the rest of Sinai still in Israeli hands is declared a military area closed to civilians, the work of transferring farm equipment and household effects seems to be progressing at a snail’s pace.

Although scores of large trucks and transporters carrying giant containers have been sent to Yamit and its surrounding villages, the work of loading furniture and moving it northwards is in slow motion.

It is almost as though the residents are waiting for a miracle to descend from the heavens or a good fairy to wave a magic wand, reversing the Knesset decision to evacuate the area and implement the Israeli-Egypt peace treaty April 25 and clear civilians out a month earlier.

DEADLINE IS MIDNIGHT WEDNESDAY

The army has declared midnight Wednesday as the time for the departure of civilians, though no attempt will be made to remove those still there until the beginning of next week. But those who stay are likely to be without water, electricity or telphone services.

While residents are making their evacuation preparations slowly, the squatters from the Movement to Prevent the Sinai Withdrawal, who have occupied empty houses already abandoned by their former owners and are even rumored to have fortified them in preparation for a confrontation with the army, are acting as though there was no evacuation deadline.

In the village of Atzmonah, established without government permissions after the Camp David accords were signed, Orthodox squatters continued today to build a synagogue, vowing to pray there in the years to come.