I spoke with my great nephew, Danny Shlomo, last night. Danny lives in Brooklyn and attends a yeshiva high school there.



Last year he and his family visited Gush Katif and like most people who visit fell in love with the area and its people.



Danny loves animals, especially snakes. So imagine his surprise when he met my neighbors, the Shomrons, owners of three dogs, a couple of snakes, turtles and lizards. Danny was in heaven. ?You know, Aunt Rachel, I don?t know a soul in Brooklyn who has that kind of collection. People may own a dog but that?s it.?



He walked the dunes near our home checking the display of footprints, trying to guess which creatures had walked, hopped or crawled through the sand. He saw the sea and the whitecaps and the mist. Flatbush, Brooklyn is not Neve Dekalim.



Danny fell in love with Israel and was passionate about Gush Katif and its pristine beauty. The disengagement plan of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon devastated the boy from Brooklyn.



?Why, Aunt Rachel, why??



I had no answers.



Danny and I spoke on the phone last night. ?We were studying about resistance movements around the world as part of our history lesson and my teacher brought up Gush Katif as an example. My class knows that I have an aunt and uncle there. I guess I talk about you a lot. Anyway, my teacher said that the battle for Gush Katif is not like any other resistance movement. It is based only on love and Torah ideals. And it?s non-violent. Our teacher said this quiet, respectful battle has no precedent.?



We spoke and I told him how the people of Gush Katif would not sign away their homes. No matter how they have been threatened, intimidated, insulted or bribed they would not capitulate.



We have been intimidated with ?deadlines?, threats of violence and arrests. We have been bribed with the promise of beach-front apartments, grants, and rental payments, and we have held firm.



Parents here have signed up their children for first grade in our elementary school. Registration is now taking place for kindergarten. Every teenage girl in Gush Katif who is graduating from the eighth grade has chosen Ulpana Neve Dekalim [the religious girls high school] as her high school. Girls from high schools all over Israel are lining up to register at the Ulpana.



And building continues. New homes are going up. A new synagogue was dedicated on Independence Day. We danced and sang as a new Torah scroll was brought in and a mezuzah was affixed to the doorpost.



Yesterday we saw non-violent demonstrators at dozens of roads blocking traffic and willing to be beaten and imprisoned by the police.



Yes, Danny, history is being made in Gush Katif. Our story will be told and retold in every history class in the world. It is the story of people, ordinary people, who with love, self-discipline and belief in the Almighty fought a government determined to expel them from their homes, synagogues and community, and to give their property in the Holy Land of Israel to the Arab enemy.



Danny, I?m so glad you visited us in Gush Katif and now history is real to you. This is a place where your aunt and uncle live, where neighbors own dogs and snakes, where animal footprints are seen on the dunes.



Gush Katif is a real place, with real people. We are a shining example to the world.