Despite long traffic delays, over 30,000 Israelis arrived Monday evening in Gush Katif, in an act of solidarity with the more than 8,000 there Jews slated for expulsion. The government plans to withdraw the residents and IDF forces from Gush Katif, and from northern Shomron, and abandon the territory to the Palestinian Authority.
Rabbi Yigal Kaminetzky, Rabbi of the Gush Katif region, told the assembled crowds that the struggle for the Katif bloc is not only to save the Gaza region, but to save the entire national homeland of the Jewish people.
Rabbi Kaminetzky said that the People of Israel felt great despair just before the split of the Red Sea, "as if there’s nothing left to be done. But then, G-d told Moshe, 'Don't cry out to Me, talk to the children of Israel and have them go forward.’ When a Jew is in trouble, when the Jewish People is in danger, shouldn’t one cry out to G-d, creator of the world? Will he not tear at the heavens? G-d tells Moshe there’s [something other than] prayer, making it possible to open up the heavens through self-sacrifice. Nachshon ben Aminadav, who was the first to jump into the water, merited to save the nation of Israel and merited the kingdom that sanctified G-d’s name.”
Rabbi Kaminetzky continued: “We’re at the stage where we can split the sea due to the self-sacrifice of the people of Gush Katif and the self-sacrifice in northern Samaria. With G-d’s help we will continue through self-sacrifice and great faith that it’s possible to win this struggle. Even a sharp sword hanging over a person’s neck does not preclude the possibility of attaining mercy. With G-d’s help we will be victorious.”
MK Tzvi Hendel of the National Union party, a resident of Gush Katif and former head of the Gaza Coast Regional Council, also spoke to the crowds. He said that Sharon lacks a mandate for his program, as he was elected on a platform that negated a withdrawal from Gaza. “You don’t have a majority in the Knesset," Hendel said, as if to Sharon, "and therefore, you must return to the people, and we will win.”
Hendel referred to the media reports of threats against government ministers: “The main person threatening members of the Knesset and government ministers, and the one who is truly inciting against the settlements, is the Prime Minister of Israel. [He's] smart enough to know that he has no chance of winning a referendum. He got an answer from members of the Likud party [who voted down the proposal to withdraw from Gaza in a party referendum] that the Jewish People are with us and we will win. An eternal nation is not afraid of a long journey."
Yesha Council Chief Bentzy Lieberman said that in the past month, over 92,000 people have signed their commitment to come to Gush Katif on the day the expulsion order is given and to fight the withdrawal in a non-violent manner.
MK Effie Eitam, IDF Brig.-Gen. (res.) who until that morning headed the National Religious Party - he was suspended from his chairmanship of the party for resigning from the Sharon government in protest of the disengagement plan before a party decision was made on the matter - also spoke. “Ariel Sharon is spurning democracy," he said. "I saw you [Sharon] today in the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Security Committee and you couldn’t even listen to my criticism of you. In the same way you fired cabinet ministers, you trample over everything that stands in your way..."
Eitam continued, “You call us inciters? This is incitement: You belittle your friends and call your Foreign Minister a butcher, and to members of the Likud you lie with no shame. Ariel Sharon, you will finish this battle at home, you will finish this battle in your Shikmim Farm [Sharon’s home in the Negev not far from Gaza], and I tell you in the name of everyone who’s here, that on the day the order is given you can destroy and make up lies, but we will stand here and prove that we love the Jewish People, we love the Land of Israel and the IDF. We will not act against our brothers who serve in the IDF.”
The Yesha Council, which represents municipalities in Judea, Samaria and Gaza, helped organize the demonstration. The intention was to show the government that if the order is ever given to expel Jews from their homes, farms, yeshivot and factories in Gaza, thousands more will be ready to prevent the expulsion from taking place. Others in Gush Katif do not accept this position, as they do not wish to acknowledge publicly the possibility of an expulsion.
In Jerusalem, opponents of the retreat burned tires at the main intersection leading into Jerusalem and near the Kastel, a few miles to the west. As a result, traffic on the Jerusalem-Tel Aviv highway was blocked for kilometers on the way into the capital. Police arrested nine demonstrators.
Hundreds of protesters also demonstrated at the Golani Junction in the north. Another demonstration took place on Route 4, also in the north, during which four protesters were arrested.
Rabbi Yigal Kaminetzky, Rabbi of the Gush Katif region, told the assembled crowds that the struggle for the Katif bloc is not only to save the Gaza region, but to save the entire national homeland of the Jewish people.
Rabbi Kaminetzky said that the People of Israel felt great despair just before the split of the Red Sea, "as if there’s nothing left to be done. But then, G-d told Moshe, 'Don't cry out to Me, talk to the children of Israel and have them go forward.’ When a Jew is in trouble, when the Jewish People is in danger, shouldn’t one cry out to G-d, creator of the world? Will he not tear at the heavens? G-d tells Moshe there’s [something other than] prayer, making it possible to open up the heavens through self-sacrifice. Nachshon ben Aminadav, who was the first to jump into the water, merited to save the nation of Israel and merited the kingdom that sanctified G-d’s name.”
Rabbi Kaminetzky continued: “We’re at the stage where we can split the sea due to the self-sacrifice of the people of Gush Katif and the self-sacrifice in northern Samaria. With G-d’s help we will continue through self-sacrifice and great faith that it’s possible to win this struggle. Even a sharp sword hanging over a person’s neck does not preclude the possibility of attaining mercy. With G-d’s help we will be victorious.”
MK Tzvi Hendel of the National Union party, a resident of Gush Katif and former head of the Gaza Coast Regional Council, also spoke to the crowds. He said that Sharon lacks a mandate for his program, as he was elected on a platform that negated a withdrawal from Gaza. “You don’t have a majority in the Knesset," Hendel said, as if to Sharon, "and therefore, you must return to the people, and we will win.”
Hendel referred to the media reports of threats against government ministers: “The main person threatening members of the Knesset and government ministers, and the one who is truly inciting against the settlements, is the Prime Minister of Israel. [He's] smart enough to know that he has no chance of winning a referendum. He got an answer from members of the Likud party [who voted down the proposal to withdraw from Gaza in a party referendum] that the Jewish People are with us and we will win. An eternal nation is not afraid of a long journey."
Yesha Council Chief Bentzy Lieberman said that in the past month, over 92,000 people have signed their commitment to come to Gush Katif on the day the expulsion order is given and to fight the withdrawal in a non-violent manner.
MK Effie Eitam, IDF Brig.-Gen. (res.) who until that morning headed the National Religious Party - he was suspended from his chairmanship of the party for resigning from the Sharon government in protest of the disengagement plan before a party decision was made on the matter - also spoke. “Ariel Sharon is spurning democracy," he said. "I saw you [Sharon] today in the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Security Committee and you couldn’t even listen to my criticism of you. In the same way you fired cabinet ministers, you trample over everything that stands in your way..."
Eitam continued, “You call us inciters? This is incitement: You belittle your friends and call your Foreign Minister a butcher, and to members of the Likud you lie with no shame. Ariel Sharon, you will finish this battle at home, you will finish this battle in your Shikmim Farm [Sharon’s home in the Negev not far from Gaza], and I tell you in the name of everyone who’s here, that on the day the order is given you can destroy and make up lies, but we will stand here and prove that we love the Jewish People, we love the Land of Israel and the IDF. We will not act against our brothers who serve in the IDF.”
The Yesha Council, which represents municipalities in Judea, Samaria and Gaza, helped organize the demonstration. The intention was to show the government that if the order is ever given to expel Jews from their homes, farms, yeshivot and factories in Gaza, thousands more will be ready to prevent the expulsion from taking place. Others in Gush Katif do not accept this position, as they do not wish to acknowledge publicly the possibility of an expulsion.
In Jerusalem, opponents of the retreat burned tires at the main intersection leading into Jerusalem and near the Kastel, a few miles to the west. As a result, traffic on the Jerusalem-Tel Aviv highway was blocked for kilometers on the way into the capital. Police arrested nine demonstrators.
Hundreds of protesters also demonstrated at the Golani Junction in the north. Another demonstration took place on Route 4, also in the north, during which four protesters were arrested.