Last year, many schools, nearly all of them in the religious sector, dealt with the expulsion in terms of the moral, sociological and political questions it raised. "Now, however," writes Kobi Bornstein, of the Committee's Commemoration and Documentation Department, "we can delve into the events in Gush Katif from a broader angle - not in terms of our immediate problems, but out of a responsibility to relate to the national memory and consciousness as including significant events in the history of the Jewish People."
"With the understanding that what happened in Gush Katif is a formative event that must be imbued in the awareness of every Jew living today in Israeli society," the letter to the principals states, "it is important that the educational system run a program during the school year to this end."
"We hope that the Education Ministry will not cooperate with those who wish to erase Gush Katif from our national history book, and will find the way to teach about it. Until then, we ask you to be partners with us in this initiative, and commemorate Gush Katif in your curricula."
The Gush Katif Committee is offering to provide schools with lecturers for a "Learning Teachers' Room," films, sample lessons, large posters, and more.
The 22nd of the upcoming month of Shvat has been chosen to remember Gush Katif in the school system. The date commemorates the anniversary of the founding of the first Gush Katif community, Netzer Hazani, in 1977.
Asked why the summertime date of the 7th of Av, symbolizing the actual week in which the expulsion began, is not the chosen date for such commemoration, Bornstein explained,
"We will continue to commemorate that date as well, but it is clear to all that if we wish to think far ahead, and have the memory of Gush Katif seared in the national consciousness, there is no alternative but to have the educational system involved. We have chosen two dates: One emphasizes the destruction and that which led up to it, including the government's trampling and forceful behavior, the inability of the Israeli society to stop its leaders, the struggle and its spiritual foundations, etc. The second date concentrates on the Gush Katif enterprise itself and its accomplishments during the 35 years it existed."
Bassi Expels Himself
In other Gush Katif news, Yonatan Bassi - the religious-Zionist kibbutz member who headed the Disengagement Authority and oversaw the solutions, or lack thereof, provided to the homeless residents - has been forced to leave his home. He announced last week that due to the hostile attitude towards him on the part of a large minority in the kibbutz he helped found, he will take a two-year "time-out." Bassi and his wife will thus leave Sdei Eliyahu in the northern Jordan Valley, and move to nearby Kibbutz Maaleh Gilboa.
Chaim Gross, who was thrown out of the southern Gush Katif town of Morag and now lives in Teneh-Omarim in southern Judea, spoke with B'Sheva's Chagit Rotenberg about this development. He said he wonders if the workers of the Disengagement Authority will help Bassi in his move.
"It is impossible not to see the Hand of G-d," Gross said, "in the fact that everyone who helped bring down Gush Katif is now being paid back, each in his own way. He was supposed to be punished, and therefore he is now forced to be exiled from his home."
"With the understanding that what happened in Gush Katif is a formative event that must be imbued in the awareness of every Jew living today in Israeli society," the letter to the principals states, "it is important that the educational system run a program during the school year to this end."
"We hope that the Education Ministry will not cooperate with those who wish to erase Gush Katif from our national history book, and will find the way to teach about it. Until then, we ask you to be partners with us in this initiative, and commemorate Gush Katif in your curricula."
The Gush Katif Committee is offering to provide schools with lecturers for a "Learning Teachers' Room," films, sample lessons, large posters, and more.
The 22nd of the upcoming month of Shvat has been chosen to remember Gush Katif in the school system. The date commemorates the anniversary of the founding of the first Gush Katif community, Netzer Hazani, in 1977.
Asked why the summertime date of the 7th of Av, symbolizing the actual week in which the expulsion began, is not the chosen date for such commemoration, Bornstein explained,
"We will continue to commemorate that date as well, but it is clear to all that if we wish to think far ahead, and have the memory of Gush Katif seared in the national consciousness, there is no alternative but to have the educational system involved. We have chosen two dates: One emphasizes the destruction and that which led up to it, including the government's trampling and forceful behavior, the inability of the Israeli society to stop its leaders, the struggle and its spiritual foundations, etc. The second date concentrates on the Gush Katif enterprise itself and its accomplishments during the 35 years it existed."
Bassi Expels Himself
In other Gush Katif news, Yonatan Bassi - the religious-Zionist kibbutz member who headed the Disengagement Authority and oversaw the solutions, or lack thereof, provided to the homeless residents - has been forced to leave his home. He announced last week that due to the hostile attitude towards him on the part of a large minority in the kibbutz he helped found, he will take a two-year "time-out." Bassi and his wife will thus leave Sdei Eliyahu in the northern Jordan Valley, and move to nearby Kibbutz Maaleh Gilboa.
Chaim Gross, who was thrown out of the southern Gush Katif town of Morag and now lives in Teneh-Omarim in southern Judea, spoke with B'Sheva's Chagit Rotenberg about this development. He said he wonders if the workers of the Disengagement Authority will help Bassi in his move.
"It is impossible not to see the Hand of G-d," Gross said, "in the fact that everyone who helped bring down Gush Katif is now being paid back, each in his own way. He was supposed to be punished, and therefore he is now forced to be exiled from his home."