A meeting of leaders of the destroyed Katif/Shomron towns reveals great unity and resolve in the face of government inaction - and plans for a major protest this Sunday.
For possibly only the second time since they were uprooted from their homes and communities two years ago, the former residents of Gush Katif and northern Shomron are planning a major protest against the government's continued neglect of their plight.
As part of then-Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's 2005 Disengagement Plan, the Israeli government destroyed 21 Jewish towns in Gaza and four in the Shomron, handed over most of the land to the Arab terrorist groups Fatah and Hamas. Attacks upon neighboring Jewish towns have intensified, as many expected, since the surrender of the territory. The Sharon government promised that it would compensate the Jewish families displaced by the Disengagement Plan and swiftly find them housing solutions.
The protest rally, scheduled to be a mass event, will be held next Sunday, July 15, outside the government complex in Jerusalem. It will begin at 10 AM, as the Cabinet ministers gather for their weekly meeting.
Later that same day, around the corner at the Knesset, Shimon Peres, who was a staunch supporter of the Disengagment Plan, is to be sworn in as Israel's ninth President.
The displaced residents' meeting, which took place on Thursday in Merkaz Shapira (east of Ashkelon), near the temporary dwelling sites of many of the expellees, was an "uplifting" one, many participants said. "The unity and feeling of we're-all-in-this-together was simply amazing," Anita Tucker of the destroyed Netzer Hazani town told Arutz-7. "With all we've been through for the past two years - each town has had its ups and downs - the feeling is that everyone wants to help each other, and we will not let the government 'divide and conquer' us."
Lior Kalfa, who headed the N'vei Dekalim secretariat and now chairs the Gush Katif Residents Committee, outlined the various fronts on which the committee is struggling. "To the consternation of many, the Gush has not fallen apart, and the communities remain united," he said.
Rally and Protest Tents
The main decision taken by the participants, representatives of each of the destroyed communities, was to take their struggle to the streets once again. Aharon Hazut, a former resident of Gan-Or (just south of N'vei Dekalim and Gadid), is organizing the event. He told Arutz-7, "After the day-long event, which we expect and hope will attract many of our supporters, protest tents will remain there for the course of the week, manned by members of the different communities. We will be a constant reminder to the government that they have abandoned us."
The main focus of the protest will be the agricultural problems the expellees are facing. Some 30% of the families of Gush Katif ran 400 agricultural businesses, raising tomatoes, celery, flowers, and much more - yet fewer than 40 of them have received land to resume operations. Those farmers who have returned to their former occupation face many problems due to the lack of proper infrastructures for electricity, sewage and irrigation, and have lost their markets abroad.
The residents are also up in arms, though with a certain measure of calmness, at the lack of progress on building their permanent communities. "It's so unbelievable that not one of the communities - not even one! - has a final agreement on their permanent home solution," says Tucker, a Netzer Hazani founder whose trademark is her unyielding optimism, "that it must be that G-d has some special plans for us. I mean, what other explanation can there be for such an absurd situation?"
As an example, Tucker noted that even the Golf Course solution - 400 housing units in the Ashkelon golf course, promoted by former Disengagement Authority chairman Yonatan Bassi over two years ago - is mired in bureaucracy. "Atzmona-Yated seemed to be progressing," Mrs. Tucker said, "but in actuality the government has placed another stumbling block: They're offering one dunam (1/4 acre) for former Gush Katif residents, and two dunams for people coming from outside. What, do they want people to have to leave for a year and then come back from the 'outside'? ... They're not providing for the communal or public buildings that we had in Gush Katif... Even Bustan HaGalil [a kibbutz in the north designated well before the Disengagement for some Shomron families] seems to have a problem... Where I live, outside Kibbutz Ein Tzurim, we are making some progress with Moshav Yesodot for our permanent community, but the government is only willing to provide 3/4 of the necessary funds for the infrastructures, and want us to pay for the rest ourselves. From where?"
Other communities with no solutions in sight are Kfar Darom, which is now in the process of leaving their Ashkelon high-rise for three other sites; Ganei Tal, currently in Yad Binyamin; Shirat HaYam, whose permits for a Jordan Valley site have been canceled; and more.