REVISITING GAZA - II


From the burning of the fields in 2018 in kibbutz Be’eri,  to burning families in kibbutz Be’eri on October 7th, 2023.

                                                                              


In 1978, when Simcha my oldest daughter got married, she and her husband went to live in the second moshav (agricultural settlement), Gannai Tal, to be established  in Gush Katif in the Gaza Strip. Since the houses had not yet been built, the other married members lived together as bachelors in one building, in order to work on their farms. On weekends they went to their respective homes.

Simcha and her husband, Gideon, were newly-weds so they started their married life living in Gush Katif in an old caravan, which was too small for Gideon’s long legs. Their next “home” was an ancient bus from the time of the British mandate, which Gideon picked up from the Tel-Aviv old bus station. There was still a notice stuck up from that time “beware of pickpockets”. It happened to be in the makeshift shower stall and toilet, which Gideon had constructed. When they finally moved into their permanent two-bedroom home it was just in time for their oldest boy to be born.

Gideon grew flowers and red peppers for export, but his main source of income was working for the army, erecting and fixing fences around settlements all over the country for defense purposes.  He hired a 16 year-old bare-foot Bedouin youth from Khan Yunis (the second largest town in Gaza), who worked for him in his greenhouses - until the moshav was destroyed in 2005. Working for Gideon enabled this worker - who was treated like one of the family - to eventually “buy” a wife and build a large home.

In those days, the settlers in Gush Katif had a good relationship with the Gazan Arabs. They did their shopping in Khan Yunis.  The worker’s father came for a visit, riding on a donkey! Simcha learned to drive, in the Gaza Strip, with an Arab male teacher. She took the oral driving test when pregnant - the only woman in the room, together with at least fifty Gazan Arabs!

I remember Gideon taking us to Gaza City to look at  all the evidence of a past thriving Jewish community. On one pillar of the great mosque was the inscription of the name of a well-known Jewish sage from the 2nd century CE. Above was a menorah, with a shofar  on one side and an etrog on the other. But the biggest attraction were the mosaic tiles, part of the floor of a synagogue, which probably served the Jewish community in the days of the Talmud. The name "David" in Hebrew can be seen very clearly.

                                                                            


On January 12th, 2005, our beloved son, husband, and father Gideon z”l, was murdered by terrorists in the Gaza Strip. To compound the tragedy, in August of the same year, Israel unilaterally withdrew from the Gaza Strip. The Gaza Strip became Judenrein.

My daughter and her five children were left homeless. Simcha is still in touch with their Arab worker, who was left with no regular work. She does her best to help him out from time to time.

Islamic fanaticism is a fast growing cancer, not only confined to Israel, but spreading relentlessly over civilised society. Unless we kill this cancer now, it will continue to metastasize, as it has been doing for decades. Global jihad has declared war on the “infidels”, and Israel is yet again the canary in the coal mine.

  

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