Abu Dhabi man offers to buy settlements

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Abu Dhabi man offers to buy settlements

An Abu Dhabi billionaire met Thursday with Ilan Cohen, the director-general of the Prime Minister's Office, with a proposal to buy the Gaza settlements from which Israel is to withdraw by the end of the year.

According to a Channel 2 report, the billionaire – identified as Mahmoud al-Abar – owns the Emar construction company and is said to be worth some $7 billion. He offered to pay $56 million for greenhouses, 12 factories, 2,000 housing units and 20 wells.

Following the meeting with Cohen, Abar was brought into Sharon's office where, according to a spokesman for the prime minister, he stayed for "180 seconds." All they did was shake hands, the spokesman said.

The spokesman said the cabinet decision from June 2004, which calls for the homes in the settlements to be destroyed and the synagogues to be removed, is still in force, and there are no plans at this time to bring another resolution to the cabinet on this matter.

Israel has held informal discussions with a number of different international bodies, including the World Bank, about the future dispensation of the properties to be left behind. The conventional wisdom being reported is that the homes should be destroyed and high-rise apartments be built in their place to house refugees.

Labor MK Ephraim Sneh told Channel 2 he was the middleman between Abar and the Prime Minister's Office. He said the deal would give Israel the option of not destroying the buildings, a move that many are concerned would appear to the world as a gratuitous act of vengeance, and one that would likely counteract the international goodwill Israel stands to gain from the withdrawal.