“I have nearly lost my voice from talking to reporters and trying to correct the lies being spread about the hotel here in Gush Katif that we have refurbished,” Matar told Israel National Radio's Eli Stutz.
According to Matar, co-founder of the Women in Green movement, guests who were visiting the Maoz Yam hotel for the Sabbath were walking along the beach toward the beachside Shirat HaYam community when a group of Arabs attacked them with sticks and stones. “Thank G-d the Jews had the upper hand and were able to disperse them,” Matar said, “but then the Arabs themselves had the gall to call the police, and of course the press decides to believe the Arab story.”
Matar says she is extremely concerned that the government and Shabak (General Security Service), led by Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, will attempt to win back the support of the public for expelling the Jews of Gaza and northern Samaria by orchestrating some sort of atrocity and blaming it on them.
“We know that Sharon is on his way down,” Matar said. “He is like a wounded animal and needs to find a way to win back public opinion. We already know that there was an Avishai Raviv [the GSS agent-provocateur who orchestrated bizarre militant swearing-in ceremonies and attacks on Arabs that were broadcast on television in order to sap support for residents of Judea, Samaria and Gaza -ed.]. I am very afraid that there will be a Shabak agent dressed as a settler who will shoot a soldier, or [that there will be] some other production – we must be very aware and on the lookout for this.”
Matar, together with Datya Yitzchaki of Minhelet Kela - the organization refurbishing homes in Gush Katif for new residents and gathering supplies - has successfully restored the 114-room Palm Beach Hotel to a level at which it is able to house hundreds of Jews who wish to move to Gush Katif.
“We contacted the owners of the hotel, who were enthusiastic about reviving the place,” Matar said. "The hotel was completely abandoned and vandalized. Jewish and Arab criminals from the region and Ashkelon took everything that could be taken – from toilets to window frames. Now, through Minhelet Kela, the place has been cleaned up and it is now in amazing condition. We have electricity, and we even have a large shared kitchen.”
Matar says the army is not happy with the hotel’s residents – not because they are “radical” or “law-breakers," but because the IDF planned to confiscate the hotel and use it for a base of operations in implementing the Disengagement Plan. “The army was eyeing this hotel and wanted to turn it into a headquarters for hundreds of soldiers – to use as barracks and to be a way of entering Gush Katif through the back door,” she said. “Now they are trying to blacken our name and frame us as violent. We, the national camp, do not need violence - because we have justice on our side.”
Matar moved to a small trailer in Gush Katif from a four-story home in the Gush Etzion community of Efrat last month. “It was not easy to move here,” she said. “We have six children. Four of them are now in a new school here. I don’t have my Maytag washing machine, but we are one of many families doing the same thing and this is what you have to do for the Land of Israel.”
She is calling on others to join her: "We have 114 rooms here, plus big halls. We opened up a kindergarden a few days ago, with 18 children between 1 and 4 already attending. The military has made it clear that if 100,000 Jews arrive here they will not be able to implement the plan – so that is what we are doing.”
Those who aren’t ready to move down to Gush Katif yet should still have a bag packed, Matar said. “The day you hear they have tried to close Gush Katif down, everybody should walk down to Gush Katif on foot. Everybody should already have a knapsack in their living room with two liters of water, a flashlight, wire-cutters, some crackers and suntan lotion.”
Nadia Matar is sure that the nation of Israel will succeed in thwarting the Disengagement Plan, and has even scheduled her son’s Bar Mitzvah to take place at the hotel, renamed the Maoz Yam Hotel. “It will be in this hotel,” she told Stutz, “on Parshat [the Torah portion of] VaYakhel-Pekudei - in March 2006.”
Click here to listen to the complete interview on Israel National Radio
According to Matar, co-founder of the Women in Green movement, guests who were visiting the Maoz Yam hotel for the Sabbath were walking along the beach toward the beachside Shirat HaYam community when a group of Arabs attacked them with sticks and stones. “Thank G-d the Jews had the upper hand and were able to disperse them,” Matar said, “but then the Arabs themselves had the gall to call the police, and of course the press decides to believe the Arab story.”
Matar says she is extremely concerned that the government and Shabak (General Security Service), led by Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, will attempt to win back the support of the public for expelling the Jews of Gaza and northern Samaria by orchestrating some sort of atrocity and blaming it on them.
“We know that Sharon is on his way down,” Matar said. “He is like a wounded animal and needs to find a way to win back public opinion. We already know that there was an Avishai Raviv [the GSS agent-provocateur who orchestrated bizarre militant swearing-in ceremonies and attacks on Arabs that were broadcast on television in order to sap support for residents of Judea, Samaria and Gaza -ed.]. I am very afraid that there will be a Shabak agent dressed as a settler who will shoot a soldier, or [that there will be] some other production – we must be very aware and on the lookout for this.”
Matar, together with Datya Yitzchaki of Minhelet Kela - the organization refurbishing homes in Gush Katif for new residents and gathering supplies - has successfully restored the 114-room Palm Beach Hotel to a level at which it is able to house hundreds of Jews who wish to move to Gush Katif.
“We contacted the owners of the hotel, who were enthusiastic about reviving the place,” Matar said. "The hotel was completely abandoned and vandalized. Jewish and Arab criminals from the region and Ashkelon took everything that could be taken – from toilets to window frames. Now, through Minhelet Kela, the place has been cleaned up and it is now in amazing condition. We have electricity, and we even have a large shared kitchen.”
Matar says the army is not happy with the hotel’s residents – not because they are “radical” or “law-breakers," but because the IDF planned to confiscate the hotel and use it for a base of operations in implementing the Disengagement Plan. “The army was eyeing this hotel and wanted to turn it into a headquarters for hundreds of soldiers – to use as barracks and to be a way of entering Gush Katif through the back door,” she said. “Now they are trying to blacken our name and frame us as violent. We, the national camp, do not need violence - because we have justice on our side.”
Matar moved to a small trailer in Gush Katif from a four-story home in the Gush Etzion community of Efrat last month. “It was not easy to move here,” she said. “We have six children. Four of them are now in a new school here. I don’t have my Maytag washing machine, but we are one of many families doing the same thing and this is what you have to do for the Land of Israel.”
She is calling on others to join her: "We have 114 rooms here, plus big halls. We opened up a kindergarden a few days ago, with 18 children between 1 and 4 already attending. The military has made it clear that if 100,000 Jews arrive here they will not be able to implement the plan – so that is what we are doing.”
Those who aren’t ready to move down to Gush Katif yet should still have a bag packed, Matar said. “The day you hear they have tried to close Gush Katif down, everybody should walk down to Gush Katif on foot. Everybody should already have a knapsack in their living room with two liters of water, a flashlight, wire-cutters, some crackers and suntan lotion.”
Nadia Matar is sure that the nation of Israel will succeed in thwarting the Disengagement Plan, and has even scheduled her son’s Bar Mitzvah to take place at the hotel, renamed the Maoz Yam Hotel. “It will be in this hotel,” she told Stutz, “on Parshat [the Torah portion of] VaYakhel-Pekudei - in March 2006.”
Click here to listen to the complete interview on Israel National Radio