Survey: Disengagement was 'useless'

Evacuation of Gush Katif ineffective in fight against Palestinian terror.

By JPOST.COM STAFF
gaza pullout protest 88 (photo credit: )
gaza pullout protest 88
(photo credit: )
The majority of the Israeli public believes that the disengagement from the Gaza Strip was of no practical value, according to a survey conducted by the Geocartographic Institute on behalf of Army Radio. Most of those who participated in the survey held that the evacuation of settlements in Gush Katif was damaging, or at the very least, was ineffective in the fight against Palestinian terror.
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Some 70% of those surveyed replied that the implementation of the disengagement plan did not contribute anything towards peace, while only 20% thought the plan was a stimulus for improved relations with the Arab world. However, a significant majority believed that the withdrawal from Gaza aided relations with Europe. Strong feelings surfaced about the treatment of evacuees. 68% of survey participants thought that the government neglected the settlers who were evacuated from Gush Katif. The head of the Disengagement Authority (Sela), Yonatan Basi, reacted to the survey, saying that "the measures that the Israeli government took before and especially after the disengagement, when we had cooperation from the settlers, were unprecedented. I believe that Sela is acting appropriately." Neveh Dekalim evacuee Hana Fikar, a resident of a caravilla in Nitzan, described the hardships she has endured since the disengagement in August of last year. "200 families from Neveh Dekalim live here, but it is not Neveh Dekalim," she said. "It is impossible to say that we have rebuilt a community. You have destroyed a community, you have destroyed values and moral principles. It's all gone." Some 50% of those surveyed categorically denounced any future unilateral withdrawal from Judea and Samaria. 18% supported a future disengagement on condition that it created conditions conducive to a peace agreement with the Palestinian Authority. 23% said that a unilateral withdrawal was necessary, since the Palestinians were not partners for peace.