Sharon: Settlements should go in 1 stage

JERUSALEM – Prime Minister Ariel Sharon wants all 21 Jewish settlements in the Gaza Strip evacuated at the same time instead of in three stages, officials said Monday, reflecting a major shift in tactics in his pullout plan.

Sharon’s goal is to prevent drawn-out and violent confrontations between settlers and the security forces, as well as multiple confrontations in his Cabinet.

According his “unilateral disengagement” plan as approved in June, the Gaza settlements are to be removed in three stages by the end of September 2005. Four small West Bank settlements are also to be evacuated.

Sharon presented the new formula to his Security Cabinet, a forum of senior ministers, on Monday. Dropping the staged pullout of Gaza is meant to stifle criticism and limit armed resistance to what would be the first time Israel has ever removed authorized settlements in the West Bank or Gaza.

Since Sharon first raised the plan in December, settlers have been organizing to resist. Though most of the 8,000 Gaza settlers are expected to accept compensation or alternative housing and leave quietly, a small core of settlers would likely dig in and try to fend off security forces.

Removing all 21 settlements at once would be practical, said political analyst Hanan Crystal.

“If they do it in stages, the same thousand settlers will run from one place to the next” to resist, he told The Associated Press. “If they do it all at once, where can they run?”