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Thursday, 24 March, 2005, 14:13 GMT

Gaza plan leaves luxury home headache

By Alan Johnston
BBC News, Gaza

If Ariel Sharon's plans to withdraw from the Gaza Strip go ahead, this will be the last summer that the settlers there go down to the beach at Gush Katif.

Surfer walks away from the sea near Gush Katif It will be hard to leave behind. Some of the best surf in this corner of the Mediterranean pounds on to fine sand that stretches south towards Sinai.

If the Israelis pull out of the Gush Katif settlement bloc in July, its prime piece of largely undeveloped coastline, with its tourism potential, will be handed over to the Palestinians.

And they will get much more than the beach. The settlers will abandon large tracts of land, farms, factories and hundreds of homes in nearly 20 settlements on the Strip.

But much remains unclear about how the property will be handed over, and exactly how the Palestinians will manage and divide up what are some of the most valuable assets in poverty-stricken Gaza.

"These houses could be a poisoned chalice. How would we decide who would live in them?"
Palestinian Deputy Finance Minister, Jihad al-Wazir

Israel worries that what were the homes of settler families might immediately become the loot of groups like Hamas which claim that it was their rocket and other attacks that forced the Israeli retreat.

At first, the army planned to bulldoze all the housing stock. But now Israeli officials talk of possibly handing the property over to some international third party that would then pass it on to the Palestinian side in a more gradual transition.

The heavily defended settlements, with their red-roofed bungalows, lawns, garages and pools, are islands of European-style suburbia.

They are in jarring contrast with the neighbouring Arab communities, where people live packed into ranks of rundown apartment blocs.

And it seems that it would almost be a relief to the Palestinian Authority if the settler housing stock were destroyed.

'Social tension'

"These houses could be a poisoned chalice," says the Palestinian Deputy Finance Minister, Jihad al-Wazir. "How would we decide who would live in them?

"They would create social tension. Maybe the rich and the elite would live in these homes, with their very nice gardens and views of the beach, while the housing crisis would continue in the rest of Gaza."

Housing in Gush Katif

And in other ways, the settler legacy may not be quite the bonanza that it at first appears.

As the withdrawal plan stands, anything produced in the farms or factories would have to be exported through Israeli-controlled frontiers. Palestinians question whether they will be granted easy access to world markets.

"When we discuss the assets of the settlers, we have to forget the hype and focus on what's actually on the ground," says Dr al-Wazir.

"The importance of the farms is not in the agriculture itself, but in the marketing channels that provide the high income for the settlers.

"If you give us the agricultural produce without making sure that we have access to the same markets in Europe and the United States, then these products would lose their value."

But Dr al-Wazir does talk too of the real potential represented by the handing over of the settlements, what he calls the most oppressive symbol of decades of Israeli occupation.

Corruption fears

The land alone is desperately needed by Gaza's Palestinian population, which lives in some of the world's most crowded conditions.

Part of the newly freed-up space might be used for the kind of high-density housing suited to the needs of Palestinians, with their large families.

"We'll definitely try to make sure that the security exists to ensure that there is no lawlessness"
Jihad al-Wazir

And there is also talk of the possibility of industrial and other development that would provide work that would do something to ease the misery of Gaza's poverty.

On the other hand, the Palestinian Authority has a dismal reputation for corruption. There has certainly been reform of its financial affairs, but ordinary people here will still have the gravest doubts that the settlers' assets will be managed properly.

And there is another concern - law and order in the days after the army pulls out. The Palestinian Authority worries that with their pent-up loathing of Israel, local people might try to storm the settlements en masse and loot and ransack whatever is left.

It would not be the image that the leadership would want broadcast to a world that will watch the withdrawal with intense interest.

"We'll definitely try to make sure that the security exists to ensure that there is no lawlessness," says Dr al-Wazir.

"And we'll make sure that there is a proper public relations campaign, to make sure that there is the utmost transparency and people know what to expect."



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