They don't want to give their real names because their own parents don't know of the decision yet. "You should have heard how Shifra's mother reacted when she heard that we were just going there for a visit!," Uri said, "so I don't want her to find out just yet..."
Arutz-7's Hillel Fendel asked Uri to explain what makes a middle-aged father of nine get up one morning and decide to move with his family to a Kassam-besieged and slated-for-demolition town in the middle of Gaza. Uri was happy to oblige.
"We believe that there will not be a withdrawal," he said, "but we also believe that we can't just sit back and do nothing. It's not that we have to do something vis-a-vis other people or the government, but vis-a-vis G-d; we have to show that we love His Land and that we are willing to sacrifice for it. Therefore, even though we are a large family, we decided to make this move."
Q. "Are all your children joining you?"
A. "To the same extent that they live with us now – those who are in the army are in the army, and those who are in ulpana [girls' yeshiva high school] will come on Shabbatot [weekends], and our three elementary school children will go to school in Netzarim."
Q. "What about work?"
A. "I am a director in a tefillin factory, and when I first thought of this idea, I knew I had to have the support of the owner. So I proposed that we open up a new factory in Gush Katif, and he gave me full support. So it will be us and another family, together with two others who may join us later. We also hope to provide work for more people down in Gaza, though it will not be simple, given the travel arrangements there; you can enter and leave Netzarim only according to a schedule, because military escorts are mandatory... My wife is a music teacher, and she will do that there as well, and will help in the establishment of the factory too."
Q. "You said you believe that there won't be a withdrawal, but still: what will you do on that day, if it happens?"
A. "It's like asking someone who is taking care of a sick parent what they will do about the funeral arrangements. Right now we are engaged only in doing what we have to do. I'm thinking only of how to build and how to unify – unifying the Nation of Israel, and the Land of Israel, and the Torah of Israel. 'What will be in the future' is truly something that does not occupy me."
Q. "What did you think when you heard that the United Torah Judaism party is entering the government, thus ostensibly making the disengagement more likely?"
A. "My first thought was that apparently even greater miracles than we thought are awaiting us in the course of thwarting this plan. We might have thought until now that it was simply up to this or that political party to stop the withdrawal; now we see that it will apparently happen in a much more miraculous way."
Q. "Did you feel that the hareidi party had betrayed you in any way?"
A. "Not at all. Apparently Rabbi Elyashiv had his reasons; who am I to argue with a 95-year-old Torah giant? I am less than dust at his feet. But I feel that our job and test now is to connect with the Land of Israel, and I am doing what I can. We know that 'prayer and charity and repentance cancel the evil decree,' and we do what we can in these areas; in terms of repentance, we have to repent, nationally, of the Sin of the Spies [who spoke out against settling the Land of Israel after the Exodus from Egypt – ed.]. Instead of disengaging, we have to re-connect. We won't mind the discomforts, and we're not scared of the Kassams – we just have to do what we can."
Arutz-7's Hillel Fendel asked Uri to explain what makes a middle-aged father of nine get up one morning and decide to move with his family to a Kassam-besieged and slated-for-demolition town in the middle of Gaza. Uri was happy to oblige.
"We believe that there will not be a withdrawal," he said, "but we also believe that we can't just sit back and do nothing. It's not that we have to do something vis-a-vis other people or the government, but vis-a-vis G-d; we have to show that we love His Land and that we are willing to sacrifice for it. Therefore, even though we are a large family, we decided to make this move."
Q. "Are all your children joining you?"
A. "To the same extent that they live with us now – those who are in the army are in the army, and those who are in ulpana [girls' yeshiva high school] will come on Shabbatot [weekends], and our three elementary school children will go to school in Netzarim."
Q. "What about work?"
A. "I am a director in a tefillin factory, and when I first thought of this idea, I knew I had to have the support of the owner. So I proposed that we open up a new factory in Gush Katif, and he gave me full support. So it will be us and another family, together with two others who may join us later. We also hope to provide work for more people down in Gaza, though it will not be simple, given the travel arrangements there; you can enter and leave Netzarim only according to a schedule, because military escorts are mandatory... My wife is a music teacher, and she will do that there as well, and will help in the establishment of the factory too."
Q. "You said you believe that there won't be a withdrawal, but still: what will you do on that day, if it happens?"
A. "It's like asking someone who is taking care of a sick parent what they will do about the funeral arrangements. Right now we are engaged only in doing what we have to do. I'm thinking only of how to build and how to unify – unifying the Nation of Israel, and the Land of Israel, and the Torah of Israel. 'What will be in the future' is truly something that does not occupy me."
Q. "What did you think when you heard that the United Torah Judaism party is entering the government, thus ostensibly making the disengagement more likely?"
A. "My first thought was that apparently even greater miracles than we thought are awaiting us in the course of thwarting this plan. We might have thought until now that it was simply up to this or that political party to stop the withdrawal; now we see that it will apparently happen in a much more miraculous way."
Q. "Did you feel that the hareidi party had betrayed you in any way?"
A. "Not at all. Apparently Rabbi Elyashiv had his reasons; who am I to argue with a 95-year-old Torah giant? I am less than dust at his feet. But I feel that our job and test now is to connect with the Land of Israel, and I am doing what I can. We know that 'prayer and charity and repentance cancel the evil decree,' and we do what we can in these areas; in terms of repentance, we have to repent, nationally, of the Sin of the Spies [who spoke out against settling the Land of Israel after the Exodus from Egypt – ed.]. Instead of disengaging, we have to re-connect. We won't mind the discomforts, and we're not scared of the Kassams – we just have to do what we can."