A 12-man delegation from northern Gaza completed a 100 kilometer (60 mile) march to Jerusalem Monday to encourage Knesset members to vote against the disengagement bill. Tens of thousands of opponents to the plan joined the group as they began began pouring into the area Monday night opposite the Knesset.
Avi Farhan, the group’s leader who started the march two days ago from his community of Elei Sinai, said that the Prime Minister admitted years ago “he was mistaken when he agreed with Begin” to move Jews out of the Sinai Peninsula and give the area to Egypt. Farhan called on Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, “Don’t make the same mistake again. Go to the people for a referendum. I promise you that I and my friends will respect the outcome.”
Farhan started a similar walk 22 years ago when he, his family and thousands of others were evicted from their homes in the Jewish town of Yamit in the northern Sinai. Today’s marchers number 12 residents spanning three generations. Their town is one of the three northern Gaza communities founded at Ariel Sharon's behest over two decades ago and now slated for destruction under Sharon's plan.
Farhan’s 14-year-old grandson accompanied him on the walk. Another marcher, who identified himself as Tzuri, walked with his teen-age son and daughter. He said four busloads went from their northern Gaza homes to the Western Wall before joining Farhan’s group at the Knesset.
"We have felt the public's love every step of the way," one participant said. President Moshe Katzav Sunday night met Farhan’s group, got out of his limousine and embraced Farhan.
The group spent the night at the Shaar HaGai junction on the Jerusalem-Tel Aviv highway. "This was precisely the place where I stopped in my march in 1982, on the day before Memorial Day," Farhan said, "after they uprooted me from Yamit. I was marching with a large Israeli flag. Uri Bar-on, an aide of Arik Sharon, then the Defense Minister, came to see me and said, 'Arik says that instead of protesting and starting a refugee camp, why don't you start a new community in the Erez area, in northern Gaza?’ And so we did! We started the town of Elei Sinai [followed later by two other Jewish communities, Dugit and Nisanit], at the behest of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon."
Farhan declared, “I started a new town at Sharon's behest, but I won't be uprooted again. Citizens are not pieces on a chess board. I feel like an exile in my own country. This is not the way to educate the coming generations."
Avi Farhan, the group’s leader who started the march two days ago from his community of Elei Sinai, said that the Prime Minister admitted years ago “he was mistaken when he agreed with Begin” to move Jews out of the Sinai Peninsula and give the area to Egypt. Farhan called on Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, “Don’t make the same mistake again. Go to the people for a referendum. I promise you that I and my friends will respect the outcome.”
Farhan started a similar walk 22 years ago when he, his family and thousands of others were evicted from their homes in the Jewish town of Yamit in the northern Sinai. Today’s marchers number 12 residents spanning three generations. Their town is one of the three northern Gaza communities founded at Ariel Sharon's behest over two decades ago and now slated for destruction under Sharon's plan.
Farhan’s 14-year-old grandson accompanied him on the walk. Another marcher, who identified himself as Tzuri, walked with his teen-age son and daughter. He said four busloads went from their northern Gaza homes to the Western Wall before joining Farhan’s group at the Knesset.
"We have felt the public's love every step of the way," one participant said. President Moshe Katzav Sunday night met Farhan’s group, got out of his limousine and embraced Farhan.
The group spent the night at the Shaar HaGai junction on the Jerusalem-Tel Aviv highway. "This was precisely the place where I stopped in my march in 1982, on the day before Memorial Day," Farhan said, "after they uprooted me from Yamit. I was marching with a large Israeli flag. Uri Bar-on, an aide of Arik Sharon, then the Defense Minister, came to see me and said, 'Arik says that instead of protesting and starting a refugee camp, why don't you start a new community in the Erez area, in northern Gaza?’ And so we did! We started the town of Elei Sinai [followed later by two other Jewish communities, Dugit and Nisanit], at the behest of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon."
Farhan declared, “I started a new town at Sharon's behest, but I won't be uprooted again. Citizens are not pieces on a chess board. I feel like an exile in my own country. This is not the way to educate the coming generations."