REVISITING GAZA
Jews and their Israelite
ancestors had lived in Gaza since Biblical times. An historic Jewish community
existed in Gaza City prior to its expulsion by the British, for safety reasons (after many had been massacred), during the infamous 1929 riots by the city’s Arabs. Land for the village of Kfar Darom (in the
Gaza Strip) was purchased in the 1930’s and settled in 1946. It was evacuated
following an Egyptian siege in the 1948 Arab-Israeli War.
In1968, Yigal Allon presented an initiative for the founding of two paramilitary settlements in the centre of the Gaza Strip. He viewed the breaking of the continuity between the northern and southern Arab settlements as vital to Israel's security in the area - which had been captured the previous year in the 1967 Six-Day War.
In 1970, Kfar Darom was
re-established as the first of many Israeli villages in the area. Allon's idea
was ultimately designed with five key areas slated for Israeli presence along
the length of the Gaza Strip. After the Israel-Egypt Peace Treaty, and the dismantling of Yamit
south of Rafah, the fourth and third strips were united into one bloc - that
would become known as Gush Katif (literally translated as “Harvest Bloc”).
On
May 29th, 1977, the first Gazan Jewish village in modern
times, Nezer Hazani, was formally established amid the sand dunes
of the Gaza Strip - when a military outpost was transformed into a civilian
community. On the day of the opening ceremony, the then Prime Minister, Yitzhak
Rabin, Head of the Labour Party, announced:
"This is a great day for the State of Israel and Jewish settlement. It is a day that symbolizes the strengthening of our presence in this area which, since the Six Day War, has become an integral part of the state and its security”.
Throughout the 1980’s, new
communities - mostly agricultural cooperatives (moshavs) were established among the barren sand dunes. The
sum of exports from the greenhouses which were owned by 200 farmers, came to
$200,000,000 per year and made up 15% of the agricultural exports of the State
of Israel. The combined assets in the Gush were estimated at $23 billion! It
was the first time in the world that successful farming was accomplished on
former sand dunes.
During the first Intifada
(1987-1990), which broke out in nearby Gaza, the residents of Gush Katif were
on the forefront of the violence. Since the beginning of the al-Aqsa Intifada
(2000), Gush settlements were the targets of thousands of violent attacks by
Palestinian militants. More than 6,000 mortar bombs and Qassam rockets were
launched from Gaza. Most of the ground attacks were infiltrations and
shootings. There were also attempts to infiltrate by sea. 42 residents of Gush
Katif were killed by Arab terror (before Hamas) and countless others wounded.
The unilateral withdrawal of Israel in 2005 from Gaza - comprising 22 thriving communities - for the sake of “peace”, created the largest terrorist base in the world. It was led by the Palestinian Liberation Organisation (PLO), graduates of terrorist camps in Yemen, Iraq, Sudan, Syria, Lebanon and Tunisia.
My family has had a long
history with the Gaza Strip. My husband and I joined a newly formed moshav in
the Negev, seven kms. from Gaza in 1960, where my four children grew up. My
oldest son and his four married children, plus his youngest unmarried daughter,
still live there with their growing families. the Arabs from Gaza setting fires, shooting rockets,
attacking IDF soldiers, and digging tunnels to infiltrate into Israel.
The settlements surrounding
Gaza are known today as the “Gaza Envelope”, where the horrendous massacres which
started the October 7th War, took place.
When my oldest daughter got
married, she and her husband went to live in the second moshav to be built in Gush
Katif in 1968.
In 2005 my
son-in-law Gideon z”l, a tenth generation Israeli, was murdered by terrorists
in the Gush. In the same year Israel withdrew from Gaza and transferred the
entire coastal territory to the Palestinian Authority. In 2007 Hamas violently
seized Gaza from Abbas and the PA and has since initiated or provoked four
major conflicts with Israel. Two years ago, Hamas has been trying very hard to
provoke a fourth -
The agonizing three weeks
and The emotional weight most Israelis
are experiencing is overwhelming. On top
of the ppain, sorrow and mourning for the manhy all the suffering, there is the
incessant worry of
What happened on October 7th
poses an existential threat to Israel. We have learned from that we cannot live next to monsters who
threated to annihilate us We must destroy the threat in Gaza and the north.
Israel must make its citizens feel safe in all of its borders The war was not
chosen by us but thrust upon us giving us no choice but to wipe out
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