photo: Synagogue in the Gush Katif community of Gadid
After the expulsion, about half of Gadid's families moved directly to the temporary pre-fab community of Nitzan, where many dozens of families from other Gush Katif communities were also to be relocated.
The other Gadid families, however, insisted on remaining together as an independent community - and this marked the beginning of torturous months involving one uprooting after another. This torture has not yet ended, as they still do not know where their permanent home will be.
Yaffa Levran, a resident of Gadid for 17 years, recounts their adventures: "We were first thrown out of Gadid and taken to the Reich Hotel in Jerusalem. From there we were sent to N'vei Ilan [just west of Jerusalem], but then we had to evacuate our rooms for about ten days and go to Tiberias, then back to N'vei Ilan, then evacuate again for a weekend and to Jerusalem, and now to Kibbutz Chafetz Chaim. We will stay here for an indefinite amount of time, until it is decided where our temporary quarters will be; after that, of course, we will have to decide where to build our permanent community."
Levran said that as far as she knows, Gadid has thus been the most-uprooted town of any of those that were thrown out of Gush Katif and northern Shomron. Despite this, the 24 families remained together for close to three months.
Seventeen of those families moved a week ago to the Chafetz Chaim guest house, which had until then been occupied by expellees from Ganei Tal (who recently moved to their temporary homes in Yad Binyamin). However, the other seven felt themselves unable to continue living with the perpetual uncertainty - and decided to move to Yad Binyamin. "They also couldn't take the hotel conditions," Levran said. "The option of Yad Binyamin and the special education afforded by Rav Tal's yeshiva community [from N'vei Dekalim] there presented itself, and they felt that they couldn't pass it up."
But for the remaining 17, their leaving was a critical blow, Mrs. Levran explains:
"This is related to the evil perpetrated upon us by the Disengagement Authority. There is a ruling that in order to be eligible to start a new community, you need 20 families - which technically, we don't have. When we first started out, when we were still 27 families, we applied to start a new neighborhood in Masuot Yitzchak. This was our preferred option, and the people in Masuot Yitzchak, as well, were very anxious to have us. But the Authority kept on putting us off and asking for more forms and delaying in various ways, until finally only 17 of us are left. This was the Authority's goal all along: to wear us down and thus divide us up."
But the people of Gadid are not giving up:
"The fact is that we have more than 17 families, but not all of them are recognized as eligible under the terms of the Disengagement Authority. For instance, we have several young couples who were born in Gush Katif but who got married after the cut-off date. We are now appealing to the various authorities, and we hope that they will realize that their guidelines are totally arbitrary and must be changed to enable their recognition as eligible families, and allow us to rebuild our community."
Mrs. Levran said that though the conditions in Chafetz Chaim are much better than any they have had since their expulsion from Gadid - "we can live as families, all together in the same unit; we can even cook for ourselves sometimes if we want" - many of the families still don't have employment, and the situation is difficult. The Levrans themselves built greenhouses in Kfar Maimon, "a 30-40 minute drive away, but unfortunately most of my neighbors are still uncertain of their future."
The Levrans can be contacted at levran@walla.com.
After the expulsion, about half of Gadid's families moved directly to the temporary pre-fab community of Nitzan, where many dozens of families from other Gush Katif communities were also to be relocated.
The other Gadid families, however, insisted on remaining together as an independent community - and this marked the beginning of torturous months involving one uprooting after another. This torture has not yet ended, as they still do not know where their permanent home will be.
Yaffa Levran, a resident of Gadid for 17 years, recounts their adventures: "We were first thrown out of Gadid and taken to the Reich Hotel in Jerusalem. From there we were sent to N'vei Ilan [just west of Jerusalem], but then we had to evacuate our rooms for about ten days and go to Tiberias, then back to N'vei Ilan, then evacuate again for a weekend and to Jerusalem, and now to Kibbutz Chafetz Chaim. We will stay here for an indefinite amount of time, until it is decided where our temporary quarters will be; after that, of course, we will have to decide where to build our permanent community."
Levran said that as far as she knows, Gadid has thus been the most-uprooted town of any of those that were thrown out of Gush Katif and northern Shomron. Despite this, the 24 families remained together for close to three months.
Seventeen of those families moved a week ago to the Chafetz Chaim guest house, which had until then been occupied by expellees from Ganei Tal (who recently moved to their temporary homes in Yad Binyamin). However, the other seven felt themselves unable to continue living with the perpetual uncertainty - and decided to move to Yad Binyamin. "They also couldn't take the hotel conditions," Levran said. "The option of Yad Binyamin and the special education afforded by Rav Tal's yeshiva community [from N'vei Dekalim] there presented itself, and they felt that they couldn't pass it up."
But for the remaining 17, their leaving was a critical blow, Mrs. Levran explains:
"This is related to the evil perpetrated upon us by the Disengagement Authority. There is a ruling that in order to be eligible to start a new community, you need 20 families - which technically, we don't have. When we first started out, when we were still 27 families, we applied to start a new neighborhood in Masuot Yitzchak. This was our preferred option, and the people in Masuot Yitzchak, as well, were very anxious to have us. But the Authority kept on putting us off and asking for more forms and delaying in various ways, until finally only 17 of us are left. This was the Authority's goal all along: to wear us down and thus divide us up."
But the people of Gadid are not giving up:
"The fact is that we have more than 17 families, but not all of them are recognized as eligible under the terms of the Disengagement Authority. For instance, we have several young couples who were born in Gush Katif but who got married after the cut-off date. We are now appealing to the various authorities, and we hope that they will realize that their guidelines are totally arbitrary and must be changed to enable their recognition as eligible families, and allow us to rebuild our community."
Mrs. Levran said that though the conditions in Chafetz Chaim are much better than any they have had since their expulsion from Gadid - "we can live as families, all together in the same unit; we can even cook for ourselves sometimes if we want" - many of the families still don't have employment, and the situation is difficult. The Levrans themselves built greenhouses in Kfar Maimon, "a 30-40 minute drive away, but unfortunately most of my neighbors are still uncertain of their future."
The Levrans can be contacted at levran@walla.com.