The former northern Gaza community of Elei Sinai is divided into three groups, only one of which is basically confident of its future.
Arutz-7 spoke with long-time Elei Sinai resident and founder Avi Farhan, for whom the recent expulsion was his second in recent decades. His hometown of Yamit in the Sinai was leveled in 1982 as part of the Egypt-Israel peace treaty. With the encouragement of the government, Farhan then founded Elei Sinai in northern Gaza, from which he was expelled two months ago.
"Where are you now, Avi Farhan?" Arutz-7 asked him today.
Farhan: "Before I answer you, let me tell you the following. My neighbor, Itzik Levy, had two giant olive trees opposite the window of our bedroom. Every evening hundreds of birds would nest there, making a racket with their chirping, and every morning they would wake us up the same way. On that last Friday of the expulsion, Itzik uprooted the trees for replanting in his new home, leaving two big holes in their place. That afternoon, the birds came - and looked for their trees. They formed a dark cloud overhead and circled up and down, back and forth, looking for their trees... It was a horrifying sight.
"We too - my wife and I and our son Ofer - are in a similar situation. We have three married daughters, two of whom were also thrown out of Elei Sinai, and 12 grandchildren - the youngest one just had a brit [ritual circumcision] on Rosh HaShanah - and we spend our time going from one to another. One lives in Kibbutz Mefalsim, near Sderot, and another in Gvar'am north of Sderot, and another one also in the area, in Bat Hadar. When I met with President Katzav, I told him that my neighbor who uprooted his trees was told by tree experts that most trees cannot withstand two uprootings, but that olive trees are stronger and should be able to. I said that I hoped we were like olive trees, and would be able to withstand our second uprooting."
Farhan then proceeded to reveal a hint of his future plans:
"I am in the process of forming a core group for a new community. I plan it to be more ideological than Elei Sinai - a community that will be actively involved in social issues, not only within the community itself, but within the entire country. It will be proactive in issues such as unity and giving and involvement, areas where unfortunately Gush Emunim and the isolated and detached Yesha Council failed. My goal is to unite the 'orange' and the 'blue' [the anti-disengagement and the pro-disengagement forces], the religious with the secular, new immigrants and veterans, Sephardim and Ashkenazim, Yesha settlers and those in Tel Aviv."
A-7: "A tall order. How will you accomplish it?"
Farhan: "First of all, by setting these goals as the target, and then by beginning to talk and listen to people - not from above, but rather as equals... I wrote an open letter to the Yesha Council way back in January of this year, and I criticized them for not having opened the leadership and the communities to a wider following. They turned the struggle for our homes and for parts of our country into a private struggle of a small group of perceived Messanists..."
A-7: "Can you be more specific about your plans for the new community?"
Farhan: "I'm on my way right now to a meeting on this topic, but in general, I'd rather not divulge details of the plans; blessing is found only on that which is hidden from the eye. I can say that in order to receive recognition as a community, we need 20 families, and I believe that we will have them, from northern Gaza and from elsewhere in Gush Katif. I want people who have proven themselves to be givers. Unfortunately, there were some in my old community who refused to take time out to stand in intersections and pass out literature explaining the utter folly of including the three northern Gaza communities in the disengagement plan. They were busy negotiating with the government for their future homes - what Tzvi Hendel and others called the 'insurance policy' approach.* But I said that it was impossible to fight for our homes and also talk about giving them up at the same time. By way of comparison, the entire State of Israel is under constant attack, and its existence is always in danger. Can you imagine if we dedicate our all to building up the IDF and fighting our enemies and making this our Jewish national home - and at the same time, we lease out some lands somewhere in Canada 'just in case'?"
*[Hendel and other Katif leaders explained in the past that meetings with the government regarding post-expulsion options were "only an 'insurance policy' for the purpose of calming the fears and concerns of those residents who are particularly worried about the future," emphasizing that the main objective is to "remain in our homes and defeat the Disengagement Plan." - ed.]
Of the 90 families that once populated Elei Sinai, a group of some 25 is on its way to Talmei Yafeh, just southeast of Ashkelon. A third group, some 22-23 families, is currently encamped outdoors just outside Yad Mordechai, north of Gaza. They are awaiting a communal solution from the government, and say they will not leave their tents before then.
One former resident of Elei Sinai, Tzuri Genish, described the situation at the encampment in somewhat more detail:
"The people there put on a brave front publicly, when they're at the encampment, but when they go back to the hotel - to visit friends, or where one of their family members has a room - then they begin crying. They are very confused, and many of them are being led astray... The problem is that they originally demanded a beautiful place near Nitzan, but as it began to be clear that this would not work out, three other options began to be raised - and no clear consensus has been reached."
Genish said that the residents will have no problem remaining there even during the winter. "They have family tents within a very large tent, with heating and many other provisions," he said.
Many families of Elei Sinai have been insistent all along that only a communal solution would enable them to brave the expulsion plan, in accordance with the opinions of psychologists accepted by the government. Community leader Edi Amit recently Israel Resource News Agency researcher Toby Klein Greenwald that residents who believed that the government might propose such a solution were later those who became the most opposed to the government because of its failure to do so.
Arutz-7 spoke with long-time Elei Sinai resident and founder Avi Farhan, for whom the recent expulsion was his second in recent decades. His hometown of Yamit in the Sinai was leveled in 1982 as part of the Egypt-Israel peace treaty. With the encouragement of the government, Farhan then founded Elei Sinai in northern Gaza, from which he was expelled two months ago.
"Where are you now, Avi Farhan?" Arutz-7 asked him today.
Farhan: "Before I answer you, let me tell you the following. My neighbor, Itzik Levy, had two giant olive trees opposite the window of our bedroom. Every evening hundreds of birds would nest there, making a racket with their chirping, and every morning they would wake us up the same way. On that last Friday of the expulsion, Itzik uprooted the trees for replanting in his new home, leaving two big holes in their place. That afternoon, the birds came - and looked for their trees. They formed a dark cloud overhead and circled up and down, back and forth, looking for their trees... It was a horrifying sight.
"We too - my wife and I and our son Ofer - are in a similar situation. We have three married daughters, two of whom were also thrown out of Elei Sinai, and 12 grandchildren - the youngest one just had a brit [ritual circumcision] on Rosh HaShanah - and we spend our time going from one to another. One lives in Kibbutz Mefalsim, near Sderot, and another in Gvar'am north of Sderot, and another one also in the area, in Bat Hadar. When I met with President Katzav, I told him that my neighbor who uprooted his trees was told by tree experts that most trees cannot withstand two uprootings, but that olive trees are stronger and should be able to. I said that I hoped we were like olive trees, and would be able to withstand our second uprooting."
Farhan then proceeded to reveal a hint of his future plans:
"I am in the process of forming a core group for a new community. I plan it to be more ideological than Elei Sinai - a community that will be actively involved in social issues, not only within the community itself, but within the entire country. It will be proactive in issues such as unity and giving and involvement, areas where unfortunately Gush Emunim and the isolated and detached Yesha Council failed. My goal is to unite the 'orange' and the 'blue' [the anti-disengagement and the pro-disengagement forces], the religious with the secular, new immigrants and veterans, Sephardim and Ashkenazim, Yesha settlers and those in Tel Aviv."
A-7: "A tall order. How will you accomplish it?"
Farhan: "First of all, by setting these goals as the target, and then by beginning to talk and listen to people - not from above, but rather as equals... I wrote an open letter to the Yesha Council way back in January of this year, and I criticized them for not having opened the leadership and the communities to a wider following. They turned the struggle for our homes and for parts of our country into a private struggle of a small group of perceived Messanists..."
A-7: "Can you be more specific about your plans for the new community?"
Farhan: "I'm on my way right now to a meeting on this topic, but in general, I'd rather not divulge details of the plans; blessing is found only on that which is hidden from the eye. I can say that in order to receive recognition as a community, we need 20 families, and I believe that we will have them, from northern Gaza and from elsewhere in Gush Katif. I want people who have proven themselves to be givers. Unfortunately, there were some in my old community who refused to take time out to stand in intersections and pass out literature explaining the utter folly of including the three northern Gaza communities in the disengagement plan. They were busy negotiating with the government for their future homes - what Tzvi Hendel and others called the 'insurance policy' approach.* But I said that it was impossible to fight for our homes and also talk about giving them up at the same time. By way of comparison, the entire State of Israel is under constant attack, and its existence is always in danger. Can you imagine if we dedicate our all to building up the IDF and fighting our enemies and making this our Jewish national home - and at the same time, we lease out some lands somewhere in Canada 'just in case'?"
*[Hendel and other Katif leaders explained in the past that meetings with the government regarding post-expulsion options were "only an 'insurance policy' for the purpose of calming the fears and concerns of those residents who are particularly worried about the future," emphasizing that the main objective is to "remain in our homes and defeat the Disengagement Plan." - ed.]
Of the 90 families that once populated Elei Sinai, a group of some 25 is on its way to Talmei Yafeh, just southeast of Ashkelon. A third group, some 22-23 families, is currently encamped outdoors just outside Yad Mordechai, north of Gaza. They are awaiting a communal solution from the government, and say they will not leave their tents before then.
One former resident of Elei Sinai, Tzuri Genish, described the situation at the encampment in somewhat more detail:
"The people there put on a brave front publicly, when they're at the encampment, but when they go back to the hotel - to visit friends, or where one of their family members has a room - then they begin crying. They are very confused, and many of them are being led astray... The problem is that they originally demanded a beautiful place near Nitzan, but as it began to be clear that this would not work out, three other options began to be raised - and no clear consensus has been reached."
Genish said that the residents will have no problem remaining there even during the winter. "They have family tents within a very large tent, with heating and many other provisions," he said.
Many families of Elei Sinai have been insistent all along that only a communal solution would enable them to brave the expulsion plan, in accordance with the opinions of psychologists accepted by the government. Community leader Edi Amit recently Israel Resource News Agency researcher Toby Klein Greenwald that residents who believed that the government might propose such a solution were later those who became the most opposed to the government because of its failure to do so.