Israel to urge PA to house refugees in settlements

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Israel supports converting the land on which evacuated settlements stand into housing quarters for refugees, in order to bolster the standing of Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas vis-a-vis Hamas.

Prime Minister Ariel Sharon will present details of an agreement in principle on demolition of the houses in the Gaza Strip settlements to U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice at their meeting in Jerusalem on Sunday.

According to the plan both the Israelis and the Palestinians have agreed on, dubbed "evacuation-construction," Israel would pay the PA or an international body to demolish the houses and evacuate the debris. The donor states and the World Bank would allocate funding to entrepreneurs to turn the settlement areas into housing quarters for refugees.

This would enable the PA to provide thousands of workplaces and reduce unemployment in the Gaza Strip by some degree.

The plan was drafted by Justice Minister Tzipi Livni and approved of by Sharon.

PA officials made it clear to the Israelis that the settlers' villas are not suitable for their needs and expressed the fear that unless the structures are torn down, the settlements would turn into a battlefield among militias.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/589376.html