After two years of soul-shaking storms and wanderings in Israel, 27-year-old Gush Katif expellee Shlomi Bashan has committed his thoughts and feelings on paper and released a new book: I’m Going: Farewell to a Beloved Land.
On August 15th, 2005, eight thousand residents were expelled from their homes in Gush Katif, an area which lies within the Gaza strip along Israel's southern Mediterranean coast. The evacuated land was given to the Palestinian Authority (PA) as part of the 2005 Disengagement Plan. Bashan, along with his fellow Gush Katif refugees, were promised new homes, employment, and agricultural fields. In fact, they were abandoned to temporary living quarters, with no place to call their own.
“I need a home.” Bashan comments in his Arutz Sheva interview. He finds no consolation in the pre-fab home neighborhoods the government has created for the Gush Katif families.
Bashan expresses his displeasure. "I never fit into Nitzan [a neighborhood of temporary pre-fab houses for Gush Katif evacuees]. I visited my parents there several times, but it's not my home… I see it as a concentration camp. They are waiting for them [the evacuees] to die there, and it is working. They are dying."
Bashan does not believe Prime Minister Ehud Olmert is taking proper care of the situation. This view, shared by many others, has merited him a place on the list of potential assassin suspects for Olmert. Shlomi was called in for interrogation by the police.
Shlomi was interviewed by Arutz Sheva TV talking about his book. Click on the link below to view the interview.
Click here to see the TV interview with Shlomi Bashan.