Prospects for a voluntary evacuation of Jewish settlers from the West Bank moved a step closer to realisation yesterday as Tzipi Livni, the Israeli Foreign Minister, voiced support for legislation that would compensate settlers who relocated to Israeli territory.

Speaking at a joint conference yesterday with Condoleezza Rice, the US Secretary of State, Ms Livni said that the legislation could help to prevent some of the problems that surrounded the disengagement of 2005, when Israel evacuated 6,000 settlers forcibly from the Gaza Strip.

She added that the process could not begin until clear borders had been drawn between the West Bank areas Israel intended to keep, and those earmarked for a future Palestinian state.

Nearly 300,000 people who live in the Jewish settlements of the West Bank pose the greatest obstacle to the peace talks between Israelis and Palestinians. Settler leaders estimate that roughly one third of the West Bank settlers live there because of economic constraints, while the rest hold ideological beliefs on the right of the Jewish people to inhabit the area.

The Adiyani family, who live in the West Bank settlement of Ariel, relocated eight years ago to escape the spiralling property prices of Tel Aviv. The family are apolitical, Mr Adiyani said, and would live just about anywhere they were ensured a nice garden and a guest bedroom.

From their balcony, the complex demographics of the West Bank can be surveyed. Uniform rows of modern duplexes make up much of Ariel, whose 20,000 residents comprise one of the largest settlement blocs in the West Bank.

Depending on the timeline and compensation, the Adiyanis said that they would leave voluntarily. Their town is not currently under consideration by the initiative, which is limited to the 74 communities that lie outside the separation barrier that Israel is constructing in the West Bank.

If it were successful in those areas, senior Israeli officials argued, it could be used as a model to evacuate tens of thousands throughout the West Bank.

Avshalom Vilan, from the left-wing Meretz party, said that up to 25,000 settlers could be moved to communities within the green line in the near future. The cost, he said, would be $2.5 billion (£1.2 billion), nearly the same as Israel spent on the 6,000 families during the disengagement.

Ehud Olmert, the Prime Minister, is being lobbied by prominent members of his Cabinet to support the legislation, which they hope will push forward the US-brokered peace talks with the Palestinians. Ms Rice said yesterday that “a very good start” had been made, as she secured an Israeli promise to remove 50 West Bank checkpoints.

The Arab world appeared sceptical about Israel’s ability to follow through on its “road map” obligations, as a two-day Arab summit ended with several governments announcing that they would review the Arab initiative of 2002, unless Israel changed its behaviour.

The initiative offers normal relations with all Arab countries in return for withdrawal from all territory captured in the 1967 war.

In numbers

$300,000 The average compensation granted to an evacuated family of Gaza settlers in 2005

282,362 Israelis living on the West Bank

Source: Times archives

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