It seems that the Israeli government will not be stopped in its plan to uproot the Israeli communities in Gush Katif (a bloc of settlements in the Gaza Strip) and that this will happen in July of this year. It also seems that the Israeli military will stop allowing non-residents to enter the area after Passover later this month. So, with a push from an interested student making a documentary, I planned a trip. My first step was to find a tour, so we could go with someone who knew the area and who could give us first-hand details (including things like where terrorist attacks happened and personal stories). All of my attempts (and those of friends) to find such a tour were in vain. I suspect that such tours are not available because the GK residents are uninterested in giving them (but I could be wrong).
So we decided to go on our own (6 of us), driving one of our vehicles. It went quite well. The area was peaceful and quiet. We saw lots of military posts and vehicles, but there was no indication of recent unrest. Some observations:
1. The recurring question to us throughout the day was, could Israel really rip all of this out? We’re not talking about caravans and temporary houses, but about some very nice houses, beautiful synagogues, and developing shopping areas. There are parks, schools, and lots of agriculture (in greenhouses). To destroy it all seems a shame.
2. Everything is built on sand. And it’s amazing what they’ve done on sand. It’s apparently a quite prosperous area agriculturally, and there are hundreds (thousands?) of buildings with nice yards with green grass.
3. At the borders and sensitive areas you see heavy Israeli defenses and armored vehicles. But the area really is a “bloc” and in the center, you don’t get a feel that you’re in the middle of a 1.3 million Arabs. You could be dropped in the middle of one of the towns and you wouldn’t know that you weren’t in a coastal city north of Ashkelon.
4. The Gush Katif bloc is only a small section in the southwestern corner of the Gaza Strip. These settlements are not scattered throughout the Palestinian areas (though there are a few other Jewish communities outside of this bloc). This area was largely uninhabited before 1967. The Jews did not take inhabited land away from Arabs; they took “worthless” sand and made it into thriving communities and farms. (Yes, it’s true that those communities now cause hardships on the Palestinians because of the secure routes that are provided to the Israelis that cuts off some Palestinian routes.)
5. I was again reminded how valuable a personal visit is in understanding things. So many things that I have read for years did not make as much sense as they will now that I’ve actually been to these places. It’s rare that I get to experience such a thing in Israel anymore, so this was a good reminder of this fact. (And the guy who told a friend of mine that he didn’t need to visit Israel because he had “visited Israel in the text” is just plain wrong.)
I have more thoughts but it’s been a long day and I need to get some sleep before another long day (teaching) tomorrow. This entry is not intended to give an answer about which position is right – to “disengage” or to maintain the status quo. I’m not sure that I know my own opinion. But neither am I sure that anyone knows whether destroying the Gush Katif communities will actually help the “peace process.”
