Reply #3: Jewish Settlers Look Into Compensation Package

[dArKeR]

By Gwen Ackerman

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Dozens of Israeli settlers have asked Prime Minister Ariel Sharon (news - web sites)'s office for details of compensation for leaving their homes voluntarily under his plan for evacuating occupied lands, political sources said on Sunday.

Israel's cabinet on June 6 approved in principle Sharon's plan to "disengage" from conflict with Palestinians by scrapping all 21 Jewish settlements in the Gaza Strip (news - web sites) and four of 120 in the West Bank by the end of 2005. Further votes will be taken next year on implementing a four-stage pullout.

The interest in the compensation offer, just a week after the plan was approved, was the first indication that at least some settlers would leave willingly despite insistence by their rightist leaders that buying them out was not an option.

The sources said dozens of settlers, most from the enclaves slated for removal in the northern West Bank and the rest from Gaza, contacted Sharon's office following news the government was preparing to issue cash advances.

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