Israel Matzav

Gaza evacuees vow 'total chaos'

Just imagine that you have been expelled by your government from the large home in which you have lived for the last thirty years. You're living in a seedy hotel or in a tent city. Your possessions are all in 'storage' and you cannot access them. You've been promised 'compensation' but you have received only 10% of what you were promised. You have had no job since you were expelled from your home six months ago, so whatever compensation you have received - which was supposed to go to get you set up to put your life back together - is going to pay your daily living expenses. Your children are on top of each other. There are six of them - bli ayin hara - and they're all sharing one bedroom. You're angry and frustrated and confused. And there's no effective place to turn. You're 45 years old and it's kind of late in life to 'retrain' for a new career.

What I've just described to you is the situation of a typical Gush Katif 'evacuee.' Maybe all the things I noted don't apply to each family but at least some of them do apply. Try to envision yourself in their situation and think what you would do. They've had it.

The Jews who were evacuated expelled from their homes in Gush Katif are going to go out and block the roads this week. I wonder if the police will send out the Yassamnikim (the unit that beat up children in 'Amona') to beat their heads and midsections in too....

Fed up with what they call "betrayal" by the government, thousands of Gush Katif evacuees have broken off talks with the government on a variety of issues and are planning a mass struggle beginning next week to force the state to dramatically improve its efforts in caring for their well-being.

Organizers of the Forum for those Injured in the Disengagement, as they are calling it, are making plans to jam roads across the country, hold mass demonstrations in front of prominent politicians' homes, seal off caravan communities in Nitzan and other towns, pull their children out of school, and generally "create total chaos," according to Forum leader Yoram Musavi.

"Until today we were good children. That's over now. We're not going to be good kids anymore," Musavi said. "It wasn't God who evacuated Gush Katif, it was the State of Israel. And like it took them out, it needs to take care of them and until then we are going to make total chaos."

In response, Government Spokesman Ra'anan Gissin called the timing of the protests political. "It's election time, what do you want?" Gissin said. [What does he expect them to do? Wait until after the elections so that Arrogant Ehud Olmert can be 'elected'? CiJ]

...

The Forum is demanding that Acting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert appoint a committee of people from outside of the government to deal with the Gush Katif evacuees from now on, saying government representatives have been unresponsive to their needs and have instituted numerous bureaucratic hurdles which have impeded their efforts to rebuild their lives. They are also demanding the government amend the Disengagement Law to provide greater compensation for lost businesses.

"We're going to demonstrate until the government understands that we are serious and they stop playing with us like they played with us until today," Musavi said. "If it takes force, we'll use force because doing it nicely hasn't worked."

...

Around 30 percent of Gush Katif evacuees still do not have temporary housing solutions, and only a handful have settled on land to build permanent homes, according to figures provided by the Gush Katif committee and the Disengagement Authority.

Additionally, only 18 of 220 farmers had received land to plant new crops and around 1,500 of 2,100 people who lost their jobs as a result of the disengagement were still unemployed, the Gush Katif committee said.

...

Moreover, an analysis released by the Gush Katif Committee to The Jerusalem Post on Thursday showed that if the housing and employment situation remains as it is, the average Gush Katif family will have only around NIS 250,000 remaining from their compensation with which to build new homes when the time comes. [NIS 4.70 = $1 CiJ]

In interviews in Nitzan on Thursday, evacuees described their financial and psychological condition as deteriorating. Compensation money they had received which was to be used to build houses was going towards paying rent and utilities and feeding their families, many said.

"Making ends meet is getting harder every day," said Yichiam Sharabi, 60, a father of five who grew hot peppers on 14 dunam of greenhouses in Gadid. "By the time we get the land to build our homes, there won't be any money left."

Sharabi, who left Gadid with his family on time and never protested before in his life, said he would join the struggle starting next week despite his distaste for politics. "Why not? We have to do something," Sharabi said.

According to Guy Natanel, 33, from Nissanit, the people of Gush Katif were pushed to act out of desperation. "We have no money, no air, and nothing to start with, and even what was promised to us hasn't come or is coming very late," Natanel said. "We're broken, and that's why we're going to struggle."

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 1:32 PM