Education Minister Gideon Sa'ar at Gush Katif
Education Minister Gideon Sa'ar at Gush KatifIsrael news photo: PR

Education Minister Gideon Sa’ar visited the Gush Katif Museum in Jerusalem on Wednesday. The visit was part of Gush Katif Day which was marked in Israeli schools.

During the tour, the minister visited all the departments of the museum, which documents the history of the region from the time of the Hasmoneans and until the establishment of Gush Katif and the 2005 disengagement plan. Sa’ar was very excited during the tour and tears were seen streaming from his eyes.

Following his tour, Sa’ar held a news conference and said that reminding Israeli citizens of what happened at Gush Katif is a must in all of Israeli society, and that in light of this fact the Ministry of Education deems it necessary to promote Gush Katif Day in the educational system.

Sa’ar noted that he was vehemently opposed to the disengagement plan and led the struggle in the Likud against then Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s plan. He revealed that he had six meetings with Sharon in which he tried to persuade him to abandon the plan but was unsuccessful.

“There will not be another eviction,” Sa’ar stressed during the news conference. “Everyone saw the bitter results and learned their lesson from Gush Katif.”

In a later interview with Arutz Sheva, Sa’ar said, “It’s not easy to visit the museum. The lives of thousands of Jews were cut off. The disengagement plan was a hope that had no basis in reality and it is impossible to point to any positive results from it. That’s the lesson that should be remembered.”

He added, “When you see the graph of the rocket launches from Gaza into Israel since the disengagement, you understand that the security situation worsened because of it. The promise to improve the security situation was not kept and the situation has even deteriorated.”

“Wherever there is no Jewish settlement there are terrorist organizations,” he said. “The residents of Gush Katif were emissaries of all the people of Israel, and when you pull out the settlement you damage the security of Israeli citizens. It is Hamas and terrorism that are in control now. Today there is a huge scope of missiles threatening Israeli citizens and that is the lesson we must learn: to avoid such moves, which ultimately not only affect our right to the land, but also harm the security of all the citizens of Israel. It's only been a few years since the disengagement plan and you can already see who was right.”