'Mistakes of Gush Katif cannot be repeated in Migron'

Minister urges government to find resolution, warns against "abandoning" outpost and repeating "Gush Katif episode."

By LAHAV HARKOV
Migron outpost aerial_311 (photo credit: Baz Ratner / Reuters)
Migron outpost aerial_311
(photo credit: Baz Ratner / Reuters)
The government must find an appropriate solution for Migron residents, Energy and Water Minister Uzi Landau said during an Israel Beiteinu tour of the outpost on Sunday.
“The government sent the settlers here, paved their roads and set up infrastructure and cannot abandon them now,” Landau stated. “The High Court decision must be upheld, but we cannot recreate the Gush Katif phenomenon, in which thousands of residents were removed from their homes, and seven years later there still is not an appropriate solution for them.”
Last week, the High Court ordered the state to evacuate the Migron outpost by August 1 because it was built on private Palestinian land.
The court also rejected a government petition to delay the outpost’s destruction until 2015, so that new homes could be built for the settlers.
Earlier in March, the government signed an agreement with Migron residents to rebuild their outpost on state land two kilometers away, near the Psagot winery.
Landau, along with Immigration Absorption Minister Sofa Landver, Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon and Israel Beiteinu MKs Robert Ilatov, David Rotem and Moshe Matalon, toured Migron with Binyamin Regional Council chairman Avi Roeh and residents of the outpost.
Migron council member Elkana Bavad told the Israel Beiteinu ministers and MKs that the government and the settlers came to an agreement, and it must be upheld.
Roeh thanked the group for visiting, and asked for full support from the party, so that Migron residents know that they have not been abandoned.