my pesach visit to the Gaza Strip

Yesterday I did what i had wanted to do since ive been in israel - i visited the Gaza Strip - home to some 1.2 million arabs. One reason i am excited to be in israel at the moment is because this seems to be a very interesting time politically because of sharon's planned disengagement from gaza.

only about 7,800 jews live in the gaza strip, nearly all in the gush katif settlement bloc, but the disegagement plan has been hugely controversial and the main talking point amongst alot of people over the last few months due to its significance. this would be the first time israel would give away/back (depending on your politics) a large bloc of land conquered in 1967. and the controversy has been heightened because 1. it is unilateral, ie the palestinians have not been involved in the process and have not made any commitments to halt terrorism if we leave gaza; and 2. because there was no referendum on the issue and sharon seems to have done a complete political uturn as he was elected on a platform of not leaving.

so after 3 and a half months of having this as a debate and discussion i finally was able to see what all the fuss was about. i had found out on the internet about a day trip to the region organised by the insanely right-wing pro-settlement organisation Arutz Sheva (who used to run an illegal radio station but it was shut down so now only have a website). i knew there would be lots of anti-disengagement propoganda but i didnt mind. i just wanted to go to the place and see for myself what it is, especially as there doesnt seem much time left to go there with the disengagement slated forjuly 20th although likely to be put off till august 20.

i must make the point that i am still undecided about whether the disengagement is a good or bad thing. on one hand i want peace and there is an argument that if you get the ball rolling it might help. but it just seems so unlikely that leaving the strip could bring peace as it is, as i said above,unilateral, and the area, which houses an estimated 1.2m arabs, is not exactly pro-israel! theres another argument that it is all just a waste of army resources for just 7,800 settlers; but the security argument, that the strip provides a buffer zone from the arabs, seems to make more sense.

who knows if we will really evacuate these people, but one thing is for sure. a large percentage of the people there not only do not want to leave, think it is never going to happen. more on that in a sec.

our trip basically consisted of going into the strip via the kissufim junction, having lunch on a grassy patch in a small settlement called gadid, visiting the settlement of atzmona, having a little flag waving in neve dekalim and then a barbequw in nitzarim - the most isolated and dangerous jewish yishuv in all israel!

it was, i must admit, fascinating to see the place. it really is just built on sand dunes and i am impressed with these people that they managed to grow stuff and build a life for themselves in this area. nothing i saw managed to convince me either way. some people have this idea that if u see the places it makes a difference. it was just like i expected it to be, and does feel a little dangerous with the arabsurrounding you just a few kilometeres away.

what was funny was that despite that, i didnt really feel overly uncomfortable, maybe something to do with having have lived in efrat for two years when i was in yeshiva i am used to the isolation. the thing was we were supposed to go to this massive rally that was being held prodisengagement that i was interested in seeing but due to time restrictions we didnt go. only while i was munching on my burgers and sausages at the barbeque we had in nitzarim (the most dangerous place in israel) did i find out that two katushas had been fired at the rally narrowly missing anyone.

we all arrived back safely at about 11.15pm, annoying cos i had missed the liverpool v chelsea game, but it was ok. it turned out it was only 0-0.

ive still not made my mind up on the disengagement. alot of the people really are some of the craziest ive met yet. but at least i did it and survived! lets see if i can survive the football on saturday evening now! YALLA BETAR!

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