Settlers: Pullout won't happen

2004-10-27 17:27

Gaza Strip - The historic vote by the Israeli parliament to approve a pullout from the Gaza Strip was met on Wednesday with defiance by settlers who remain convinced it will never come to fruition.

"The evacuation will never take place here. (Prime Minister Ariel) Sharon will be forced to respect the wishes of the people," said Myriam Guvi whose daughter, a victim of a Palestinian attack two years ago, lies buried in the soil of southern Gaza.

Residents of the Gush Katif settlement bloc, home to the vast majority of the 8 000 Gaza settlers, want to see Sharon subject his fiercely contested disengagement plan to a referendum which they are convinced will leave the project still-born.

Tuesday's vote - the first time the Israeli parliament has approved a pullout from Palestinian land occupied the 1967 Arab-Israeli war - may well have sounded the death knell for the Jews of Gaza but the settlers were giving a good impression of business as usual.

Yoel Ettedgui, 30, was busy overseeing continued building work on his new house in Neve Dekalim, the largest of the Gush Katif settlements.

"Here's my response to the Sharon plan. I refuse to believe that I'm just building on sand," he told reporters.

But Ettedgui said that if the government really did try and see through with the pullout next year, he would go without a fight.

- SAPA