August 4, 2005
Embassy of Israel Briefing

Israel is moving ahead with its plans this summer to turn over the Gaza Strip and more than 300 square miles of the West Bank to the Palestinian Authority. Against the background of more than four years of terrorist bloodshed, Israel initiated its Disengagement Plan in the Gaza Strip and northern Samaria for two principal purposes: to enhance its security and to put the peace process with the Palestinians back in motion.

Israel's historic withdrawal from the Gaza Strip and Northern Samaria entails Israel's largest territorial concession since it transferred control of the Sinai Peninsula to Egypt. Moreover, Disengagement emphatically reaffirms the Jewish State's willingness to take substantial risks in its quest to make peace with its neighbors.

Israel's withdrawal from Gaza will mean that 1.3 million Palestinians will no longer be subject to Israeli jurisdiction. Meanwhile, Israel's dismantlement of four settlements in northern Samaria will create a contiguous region there of 300 square miles under Palestinian control and with no Israeli presence. As a result, nearly 430,000 West Bank Palestinians will no longer be under any Israeli security control.

Israel's evacuation requires a considerable sacrifice on the part of about 8,000 people - some 1,700 families - who must leave the homes and livelihoods they have built over the course of several decades. Removing the Jewish communities from the Gaza Strip and northern Samaria means:

• 3 high schools, 7 elementary schools, 36 kindergartens, and 42 day-care centers must close;

• 5,000 schoolchildren will need to find new schools;

• 38 synagogues must be dismantled;
• 166 Israeli farmers will lose their livelihoods, and 5,000 Palestinians employed on these Israeli farms will lose their jobs;

• 48 graves, including those of six residents murdered by terrorists, will be exhumed and moved to other cemeteries in Israel.

A return to peace negotiations under the terms of the US-backed Roadmap very much depends on the success of the Disengagement. Any return to a political negotiating process is predicted on the Palestinian Authority preventing Hamas and other extremists from filling the vacuum in Gaza. Progress towards peace under the Roadmap will be impossible if the Palestinian leadership simply tries to "pocket" Israel's unilateral withdrawal while neglecting to meet its responsibilities, first and foremost, to dismantle the terrorists groups and definitively abandon terrorism.

Click here to read more about the origin of the disengagement plan and its provisions.

Moshe Fox
Minister for Public Affairs
Embassy of Israel
Washington, DC