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The Fleishers lived in the town of Gadid for one month and one week, during which they met the people of the Gush, helped them build, celebrated with them, worried with them, laughed with them and cried with them.
The following pictures and captions are the Fleishers' eyewitness documentation of the historic events.
Heaven on Earth
A Protest Surfaces
The Writing Is On The Wall
It Begins
The Pain Sets In
People React Differently
The Cruelty
Finality
(Photos: Yishai and Malkah Fleisher)
The Fleishers lived in the town of Gadid for one month and one week, during which they met the people of the Gush, helped them build, celebrated with them, worried with them, laughed with them and cried with them.
The following pictures and captions are the Fleishers' eyewitness documentation of the historic events.
The Sun sets on N'vei Dekalim
A family in Gadid
A tent on the beach of the seaside community of Shirat Hayam
Flowers outside N'vei Dekalim's synagogue
A beautiful building and central square in Gan Or
The Synagogue in Morag
G-d watches over us
The nurseries of Atzmona
Children send up orange balloons at a celebration in Gadid
A colorful resident at a thankgiving gathering in Gadid
A Protest Surfaces
At Kisufim Checkpoint, a face-to-face confrontation between a resident and soldier
Things heat up in Kfar Darom
A truck removing an IDF structure is blocked
After refusing orders, a soldier is taken away
Americans arrive to protest expulsion
"G-d is the King"
"Who dares fight the King?"
Pop/folk singer Ariel Zilber plays a concert to boost moral
Rabbi Yigal Kaminetsky prays with his flock
Banner hanging in N'vei Dekalim
"The transfer will not pass" reads a sticker in front of the Synagogue of Atzmona
The Writing Is On The Wall
"For 27 Years the Gush was my home, now the Sharon family is throwing me into the street"
The Holy Temple
"Our spirit you shall not break"
So many miracles, G-d put up an umbrella
"The IDF? Contractors for Hamas"
"A Jew threw me out" - a graphical play on an ad campaign urging Israelis on both sides of the Disengagement controversy not to cut off contact with one another
"This was my home"
"9th of Av 1492 - eviction from Spain, 9th of Av 2005 - eviction from Gush Katif. We will not forget, we will not forgive"
"The old fool rebels against the King - who is he!?"
It Begins
Chief of Staff Dan Halutz arrives on the scene
On the day of the eviction, the Jewish bookstore in Neve Dekalim remains open
The special Disengagement police arrive, wearing black uniforms
A civilian town turns into a military zone
Massive prayer rally fills N'vei Dekalim's streets
Rabbis with Shofars cry out to Heaven
Families come to pray at the graves of their loved ones
Media people everywhere
A family is told they have two hours to leave
A female soldier passes out after children talk her out of participation in the eviction
The Pain Sets In
A soldier marks off 'fallen' houses on an aerial photo
"Why are you doing this?"
A detainee above soldier
Evictee embraces evictor
The supermarket shelves are empty
A soldier looks up at the Namir house/stronghold in N'vei Dekalim
A Namir girl chides the soldiers
N'vei Dekalim: a heaven turned to hell
Jewish hippy moves into empty house
People React Differently
A detainee mocks the army
A mother is evicted while embracing her child
Members of the Cohen family leave their house crying and singing
A child's toy is lost
The army tapes all those who resist, including the Bazak family
A Jewish home burns
This man was injured by soldiers
A policeman eats ice cream while Jewish home burns in background
Chezi tears his shirt, a ritual symbolizing mourning
The army begins its siege of the N'vei Dekalim Synagogue. Youth can be seen silhouetted in the background.
The Cruelty
Divide and conquer at the N'vei Dekalim Synagogue compound
An IDF officer breaks down, crying hysterically
People climb up on roofs....
...But the army chases them
...and takes them down
Finality
Protesters are thrown unto busses
Talking does not seem to help
A Jewish army?
"The Disengagement"
"Yizkor" - soldier and candle
Arab kid waits till the dust settles down to inherit
Uri Bar-Lev, head Disengagement for the police, tells Fleisher, "I don't want to hear it, just get out"
Last look at the sea, for now.
(Photos: Yishai and Malkah Fleisher)
