At long last, some good news from Gush Katif: The government and the families of Ganei Tal have signed an agreement for the construction of a new moshav (cooperative farming town) just west of Kibbutz Chafetz Chaim.

Ganei Tal was established in 1979, in close proximity to Netzer Hazani and the younger Moshav Katif. It is the only one of the 21 Gush Katif communities that managed to remain whole throughout the difficulties of the more than three years since the Disengagement/expulsion.  The other towns either broke up into two or three locations, or disbanded altogether.



Immediately after being thrown out of their homes, the Ganei Tal residents were taken to the Chafetz Chaim guest houses, where they remained for some ten weeks. In late October 2005, they moved in to their new quarters in Yad Binyamin – where they have remained until now and will remain until their new town is ready. "This could take two years," Yoram Leffler, head of Ganei Tal’s town secretariat, told IsraelNationalNews.



At the time of the move to Yad Binyamin, east of Chafetz Chaim, long-time Ganei Tal resident Moti Sender, the editor of the Katif.net site, said , “This is also a temporary solution, because hopefully, within another year or two, we will build our permanent community; it's not for sure, but it looks like it will be right outside Chafetz Chaim.” 



He was right about the location, but was off the mark in terms of time; instead of “a year or two” in Yad Binyamin, it’s more like five years.

It is the only one of the 21 Gush Katif towns that was able to remain together throughout the difficulties of the more than three years since the Disengagement/ expulsion.





“The bottom line is,” Sender continued at the time, “that we will now be able to get on with our lives here, together."

"I have to emphasize," Sender said, "that, unlike other communities, Ganei Tal was, thankfully, able to remain together. But, as I told [Disengagement Authority chief] Yonatan Bassi, who was here today [during the move to Yad Binyamin], the biggest crime of this entire disengagement is that of the crumbling of the communities - Moshav Katif is falling apart while it waits for solutions, and Atzmonah has split up into two, and Netzer Hazani is divided in two, and N'vei Dekalim is altogether crumbling..."



Leffler was asked to what he ascribes the strong community cohesiveness. “It’s hard to say,” he responded, “but we are a strong community, and there was no reason for us to split up.  We have been together for a long time, and the people here believed in the leadership, and in our long-time rabbi, Rabbi Gabi Kadosh, who led us for 22 years.”



Three-Way Deal

The new agreement is a three-way deal involving the government, Chafetz Chaim, and Ganei Tal. It is hoped that within a month, Chafetz Chaim will free up the lands, and the government will then begin to build the new town’s infrastructures, at a cost of 160 million shekels.  The government will also replace the town’s lost synagogue, school, kindergarten, and other public buildings.



Each family will receive an agricultural plot of 40 dunams (nearly 10 acres), as well as a one-dunam, two-plot area for houses. 



“We insisted on receiving that which was taken away from us,” Leffler said.



Disengagement Administration officials said that the agreement was “particularly generous,” but that it did not deviate from budget allocations.