Israel Matzav

Someone finally notices the Jews who were expelled from Gaza

Sunday morning's Jerusalem Post editorial is about a subject that the government of Israel would rather you not hear about. For that matter, as some of you may recall, some people at the Jewish federations in the United States would also rather that you forget about these people. Fortunately, according to the editorial, those who would rather forget have not carried the day, and the federations are raising money for these poor people. The people the Israeli government would like you to forget (and for whom the Jewish federations in the US are raising money) are the Jews who were expelled from Gaza by the government of Fat Arik Sharon so that he could keep himself and his crooked sons out of prison.

It is nearly a year and a half since a government-sponsored advertising campaign reassured the nation that "there's a solution for every settler" - a reference to the thousands of Israeli citizens then slated to be removed from Gaza and northern Samaria as part of disengagement.

However the sorry truth is that not a single evacuated family has been relocated to a permanent home. Most of the evacuated breadwinners are still unemployed. Only 10 of the 400 farmers were given new land, and even that was woefully inadequate.

And the advances that have been paid on compensation (the final extent of which is still bogged down in red tape) are being eaten up by the cost of daily subsistence in lieu of income. Many previously well-to-do settlers are being reduced to financial ruin and cannot afford to buy new homes.

The litany of post-disengagement misery for these uprooted Israelis is long, and includes the breakup of families, truancy and physical and/or psychological ill-health. Officialdom's excuses, which may have been semi-tolerable in the immediate aftermath of the complex and wrenching unilateral pullout, are patently no longer sufferable.

Indeed they are not sufferable and have not been almost since the beginning. But what prompted the Post to write this editorial is almost suprising:

Such a conclusion, it should be stressed, is not a reflection of partisan thinking. It is not the skewed impression of those politically disposed to support the evacuees in any case. A moving petition, imploring the government to end this neglect, was published last week above the signatures of a veritable who's who of Israel's left wing. Among them are such outspoken political figures as Yossi Sarid, Shulamit Aloni, Aryeh Eliav and Uzi Dayan; literati like Amos Oz, A.B. Yehoshua, David Grossman, Sami Michael, Eli Amir, Yehoshua Sobol and Haim Be'er; showbiz and media celebrities including Gila Almagor and Yaron London; Peace Now's Mossi Raz and Janet Aviad, and even Shimon Peres's daughter Zvia Walden.

While affirming Israel's "right to vacate territory and uproot settlements," the petitioners maintain that "it is incumbent upon the government to protect the evacuated citizens' injured rights, compensate and rehabilitate them. This is the mutual responsibility that obliges us all. It is the decree of morality and heart, of the law, of democracy's raison d'etre."

The petition notes that "despite all the time that has elapsed, thousands of evacuees languish neglected in temporary accommodations. They have no permanent settlements. Joblessness is rampant. Communities disintegrate."

The petition is not without a political subtext. It expresses a concern that "the mistreatment of Gush Katif's evacuees might delegitimize further such evacuations in future." But its stated bottom line, again, is firmly nonpartisan: "We behold the distress of our brethren, we feel their pain and we protest their situation." Such sympathy and sensitivity, unfortunately, is not shared across Israel's bureaucracy.

And we all know that Ehud K. Olmert, who deems himself Sharon's political heir (and who may be the only politician in Israel who is more corrupt than Ariel Sharon), would like nothing better than to surrender Judea and Samaria to the 'Palestinians' as well. And unlike Sharon, Olmert is a true believer.

The way the Israeli government has treated the expelled Jews of Gaza is disgusting. We need to make sure that their grievances are redressed and that no other Israeli Jews are forced to go through the same thing down the road.

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 2:39 AM