Trump donated toward settlement evacuees

President-elect Donald Trump assisted the Israeli government to establish infrastructure for new communities for Israelis being evacuated from the settlements in the Sinai in the1980s and from Gaza in 2005, Yedioth Ahronoth has learned.

Sinai was evacuated as part of a peace agreement between Israel and Egypt which Gush Katif in Gaza was done so at the behest of former Prime Minister Ariel Sharon in a unilateral withdrawal.

According to various estimations, Trump’s financial donations amounted to millions of shekels.

The high costs of evacuating Gush Katif, which stood at 10 billion shekels caused the Israeli government to seek assistance from the Jewish National Fund and other Jewish donations. “We issued an appeal to all Keren Kayemeth leIsrael (KKL) and JNF offices worldwide,” explained Effie Stenzler, former chairman of the Jewish National Fund.

“KKL-USA sought donations in the US and one of them was sought from Trump, who is considered to be an avowed supporter of Israel, and he donated money toward the establishment of infrastructure in new communities,” Stenzler said. The funds were used to build greenhouses, to construct houses and to pave access roads.

It also turns out that the tycoon-turned-politician contributed some of his wealth in 1980 toward evacuating settlements in the Sinai and his name appears on a list of donors in the Hevel Shalom region, which absorbed the evacuees from Sinai and Gaza.

According to the Yaron Solomon, the director of the Settlement Department of the Agricultural Union, some of the evacuees chose to establish three communities through this union, which included Dekel, Talmei Yosef and Yevul.