August 11, 2005

The Cost of Disengagement
Background Facts

The Disengagement Plan demands a considerable sacrifice on the part of some 1,700 settlers and their families, or about 8,000 people who must leave the homes and livelihoods they have built over the course of several decades.
It also represents an economic cost to the State of Israel of some $2 billion.

1. Removing 21 Jewish communities from the Gaza Strip and four from northern Samaria means:

·• 42 day-care centers, 36 kindergartens, seven elementary schools, and three high schools will be closed

• 5,000 schoolchildren will need to find new schools

• 38 synagogues will be dismantled

• 166 Israeli farmers will lose their livelihoods - plus some 5,000 of their Palestinian workers will lose their jobs

• 48 graves in the Gush Katif Cemetery, including those of six residents murdered by terrorists, will be exhumed and moved to Israel.

2. Disengagement will cost Israel an estimated $2 billion - about 3.5 percent of the 2005 state budget

• The cost of family relocation alone is estimated to be nearly $1 billion. This will come from an annual state budget of about $59 billion.

• In addition, the IDF will spend some $500 million to remove military bases and equipment from the Gaza Strip.

• To cite just one example of the costs entailed, the demolition and removal of rubble from some 3,000 homes and public buildings will cost an estimated $25 million.

• In the context of Israel's 2005 state budget, the estimated $2b. cost of disengagement is equivalent to about half the country's annual health budget or approximately one third of the budget for education.