An organization named L'maan Achai - On Behalf of My Brothers - has been established in the past day and a half, to ensure that the new refugees receive the proper accomodations in the coming days.
One of the directors, Ya'ir Wolfe, who also serves as the Deputy Mayor of the Gush Etzion Regional Council, said today, "The government has prepared for the absorption of the refugees in a very disorganized manner. Some of the hotel arrangements were made only on Sunday, for instance - as if they didn't know about the wave of refugees long beforehand."
Wolfe said that most of the work is being done on a voluntary basis, except for some things that the government is dealing with: "Laundry, for instance. The families arrived in their temporary quarters with barely any clothes - how are they supposed to wash them? [One hotel charged 4 shekels per kilogram of clothing. - ed.] Or the matter of sweaters - Jerusalem is much colder at night than Gush Katif, and they don't have the right clothing. There are 1,001 problems that have to be solved, and volunteers are helping solve them."
"Another problem is that some of the hotels are not not properly prepared for them - there are religious families placed in irreligous hotels on the Dead Sea, and they don't want to stay there. Some of the hotels say that they don't want the refugees and their visitors and helpers taking over the hotel, and the like."
“Can we even begin to imagine what they're going through?!” said one of the volunteers. “It is absolute madness, and nothing has been properly arranged. All the talk about proper arrangements was simply not true.”
Wolfe is one of a group of Gush Etzion rabbis and local council members who decided to take responsibility for providing support for those expelled. A headquarters has been set up at Netiv Meir Yeshiva High School in Jerusalem to identify their needs and recruit service providers and provisions. Every hotel housing the displaced residents has been assigned both a rabbi and volunteers responsible for logistical assistance.
Each Gush Etzion town was assigned a certain number of “adopted families" staying together in a hotel. The community of N’vei Daniel, for example, has been assigned 22 families from N’vei Dekalim who were brought to Jerusalem's Elah Regency Hotel.
In the Binyamin region, north of Jerusalem, the town of Beit El is preparing high school dormitory rooms to house 80 Jewish families from Gush Katif who who were not taken care of by the Disengagement Authority.
Shoshi Harari, one of the volunteer organizers, told Arutz-7 about all the services that are needed to provide the new refuges with some sense of normalcy. “First of all, [many of] the hotels are only providing breakfast, so we will be preparing meals,” she said. “We will also be taking care of Sabbath preparations, organizing child care and trying to plan night-time activities, as well as making sure every family has someone worrying about their wellbeing”.
A hotline has been set up for those wishing to volunteer their time or resources toward helping the deportees: 1-700-501300 Former Gush Katif residents who are seeking help or information about their neighbors can call 1-700-500422.
Some of the horror stories of last night include the following:
* A man from N’vei Dekalim was put on a different bus than his wife and brought to Jerusalem, only to discover that arrangements were not made for his family. He was forced to wait in a hotel lobby for the rest of his family to arrive so that they could all be sent somewhere else together.
* One older couple drove around to three hotels before finding out that they had been assigned to a fourth.
* In Sderot, families were dropped off at the wrong place, and local residents got together to pick them up and drive them to the correct place.
* One couple that arrived in a Jerusalem hotel at midnight was told that they could not bring in their beloved pet dog. The hotel staff insisted and even threatened to call the police; the man said, "I've already been thrown out of my house once today, so I don't mind being thrown out again."
* A volunteer from the community of Alon Shvut went to Jerusalem’s Reich Hotel, in the Beit HaKerem neighborhood, and discovered that she was the only person there, aside from the hotel staff, to lend assistance to the new arrivals.
One of the directors, Ya'ir Wolfe, who also serves as the Deputy Mayor of the Gush Etzion Regional Council, said today, "The government has prepared for the absorption of the refugees in a very disorganized manner. Some of the hotel arrangements were made only on Sunday, for instance - as if they didn't know about the wave of refugees long beforehand."
Wolfe said that most of the work is being done on a voluntary basis, except for some things that the government is dealing with: "Laundry, for instance. The families arrived in their temporary quarters with barely any clothes - how are they supposed to wash them? [One hotel charged 4 shekels per kilogram of clothing. - ed.] Or the matter of sweaters - Jerusalem is much colder at night than Gush Katif, and they don't have the right clothing. There are 1,001 problems that have to be solved, and volunteers are helping solve them."
"Another problem is that some of the hotels are not not properly prepared for them - there are religious families placed in irreligous hotels on the Dead Sea, and they don't want to stay there. Some of the hotels say that they don't want the refugees and their visitors and helpers taking over the hotel, and the like."
“Can we even begin to imagine what they're going through?!” said one of the volunteers. “It is absolute madness, and nothing has been properly arranged. All the talk about proper arrangements was simply not true.”
Wolfe is one of a group of Gush Etzion rabbis and local council members who decided to take responsibility for providing support for those expelled. A headquarters has been set up at Netiv Meir Yeshiva High School in Jerusalem to identify their needs and recruit service providers and provisions. Every hotel housing the displaced residents has been assigned both a rabbi and volunteers responsible for logistical assistance.
Each Gush Etzion town was assigned a certain number of “adopted families" staying together in a hotel. The community of N’vei Daniel, for example, has been assigned 22 families from N’vei Dekalim who were brought to Jerusalem's Elah Regency Hotel.
In the Binyamin region, north of Jerusalem, the town of Beit El is preparing high school dormitory rooms to house 80 Jewish families from Gush Katif who who were not taken care of by the Disengagement Authority.
Shoshi Harari, one of the volunteer organizers, told Arutz-7 about all the services that are needed to provide the new refuges with some sense of normalcy. “First of all, [many of] the hotels are only providing breakfast, so we will be preparing meals,” she said. “We will also be taking care of Sabbath preparations, organizing child care and trying to plan night-time activities, as well as making sure every family has someone worrying about their wellbeing”.
A hotline has been set up for those wishing to volunteer their time or resources toward helping the deportees: 1-700-501300 Former Gush Katif residents who are seeking help or information about their neighbors can call 1-700-500422.
Some of the horror stories of last night include the following:
* A man from N’vei Dekalim was put on a different bus than his wife and brought to Jerusalem, only to discover that arrangements were not made for his family. He was forced to wait in a hotel lobby for the rest of his family to arrive so that they could all be sent somewhere else together.
* One older couple drove around to three hotels before finding out that they had been assigned to a fourth.
* In Sderot, families were dropped off at the wrong place, and local residents got together to pick them up and drive them to the correct place.
* One couple that arrived in a Jerusalem hotel at midnight was told that they could not bring in their beloved pet dog. The hotel staff insisted and even threatened to call the police; the man said, "I've already been thrown out of my house once today, so I don't mind being thrown out again."
* A volunteer from the community of Alon Shvut went to Jerusalem’s Reich Hotel, in the Beit HaKerem neighborhood, and discovered that she was the only person there, aside from the hotel staff, to lend assistance to the new arrivals.