Yitzhak Amitai, a resident of Gan-Or in Gush Katif where thousands from all over Israel converged Thursday evening, added, "Our morale is high. The visitors who came today said they left with renewed strength that they drew from us."
Two of the visitors drove more than three hours from the left-leaning secular Kibbutz Ein Harod, near Bet She'an. "Zionism does not belong only to the religious people," said Dr. Chana Tabenken, a medical doctor whose family includes the founders of the kibbutz. "Gush Katif is what Zionism is all about."
Thursday's event concluded with Chanukah candle-lighting at the Gan Or synagogue and dancing on the grounds outside. Over 1,000 cars drove in various convoys from Sa-Nur - one of the four Shomron communities slated for destruction in the framework of Prime Minister Sharon's disengagement plan - to Gan-Or, located in Israel's southern coastal region.
Thursday's turn-out would have been even higher, Amitai said, but "people were afraid to come only because of fear of traffic jams such as there were on Independence Day." He was referring to a solidarity-day event last May when tens of thousands of people were forced to get out of their cars and buses and walked toward Gush Katif on foot after severe traffic clogged the roads.
Amitai pointed out that many new families have moved into Gush Katif communities since the government has proposed expelling the Jewish residents of Gaza from their homes and transferring the land to Arabs. "No one has run away," he said. "In fact, the opposite is true. This year 24 families have joined us at Gan-Or, and more are coming all the time." A drive has just begun to draw new families to live in Gush Katif, in yet another angle of the Gush Katif campaign to "Stop the Disengagement."
"We are going house to house to show all of Israel the beauty of Gush Katif," Amitai said. Moshav Gan-Or, like most of the Jewish communities in Gush Katif, includes dozens of hothouses that grow vegetables year-round.
Two of the visitors drove more than three hours from the left-leaning secular Kibbutz Ein Harod, near Bet She'an. "Zionism does not belong only to the religious people," said Dr. Chana Tabenken, a medical doctor whose family includes the founders of the kibbutz. "Gush Katif is what Zionism is all about."
Thursday's event concluded with Chanukah candle-lighting at the Gan Or synagogue and dancing on the grounds outside. Over 1,000 cars drove in various convoys from Sa-Nur - one of the four Shomron communities slated for destruction in the framework of Prime Minister Sharon's disengagement plan - to Gan-Or, located in Israel's southern coastal region.
Thursday's turn-out would have been even higher, Amitai said, but "people were afraid to come only because of fear of traffic jams such as there were on Independence Day." He was referring to a solidarity-day event last May when tens of thousands of people were forced to get out of their cars and buses and walked toward Gush Katif on foot after severe traffic clogged the roads.
Amitai pointed out that many new families have moved into Gush Katif communities since the government has proposed expelling the Jewish residents of Gaza from their homes and transferring the land to Arabs. "No one has run away," he said. "In fact, the opposite is true. This year 24 families have joined us at Gan-Or, and more are coming all the time." A drive has just begun to draw new families to live in Gush Katif, in yet another angle of the Gush Katif campaign to "Stop the Disengagement."
"We are going house to house to show all of Israel the beauty of Gush Katif," Amitai said. Moshav Gan-Or, like most of the Jewish communities in Gush Katif, includes dozens of hothouses that grow vegetables year-round.