Gush Katif Seven Years Later - No, It's Not Fine

Sharon Katz..
Voices Magazine..
29 July '12..




It's Tisha B'Av.

My family went to synagogue to read Eicha (Lamentations). The Jewish people have plenty over which to lament - from the first major Tisha B'Av disaster (the sin of the spies in the desert) up through the destructions of the Holy Temples, the Spanish Inquisition, and most recently the Destruction of Gush Katif and Northern Shomron and the Expulsion of Jews from their homes.

On my way to sleep, I decided to check the news. Nothing special. IDF Home Front Command's Search and Rescue soldiers are training for chemical warfare. Opposition leader Shaul Mofaz said that attacking Iran could be catastrophic for Israel. The CIA says Israel is breaking into the homes of CIA agents in Israel. Republican Presidential Candidate Mitt Romney has landed in Israel.
Regular day of news.

Then I saw a message from my niece. "On Tisha B'Av, remember the destruction of Gush Katif. Watch this movie - UNSETTLED - Documentary on the Disengagement from Gaza."(Click here)

Looking at the Expulsion from the eyes of settler, soldier and politician, it is done in such a true-life human manner without anyone banging your head with messages, it doesn't seem like a documentary.Up-close, personal, compelling, excellent! Directed by Joel Blasberg and Oreet Rees, produced by Arnold Peltz and Joel Blasberg, it is also magnificently filmed and edited.

In addition to the interviews done with the subjects of the documentary, the film brings us right up close to the interactions between soldier and settler at the moment of the Expulsion. We hear their dialogue, their thought processes, their reasoning, their arguing.

"It will be fine," the soldiers told the sobbing residents of Gush Katif as their were being thrown out of their homes. "It will be fine."

Question to the Soldiers of the "Disengagement"

So, I'd like to ask a question to those soldiers who participated in the Expulsion, who said, "Don't worry. Everything will be fine." What do you think now seven years later when half of Gush Katif residents still live in refugee camps in paper-thin caravillot and a third haven't even been able to begin building their future homes yet. Is everything fine?

Soldiers who participated in the Expulsion and said, "Don't worry, everything will be fine," what part of families running into sewer pipes for shelter during a missile attack is fine?

Soldiers who said everything will be fine, what do you think now seven years later when unemployment is 14% high among Gush Katif families, and would be much higher except for the fact that Gush Katifers want to be productive, and have even taken jobs below their abilities in order just to work?

Soldiers who said everything will be fine, what do you think about all the marriages that have broken up, the illnesses that have developed, and the older teens who are now at-risk because of the results of the Disengagement?

And what do you think of the thousands of missiles that have been fired upon Israel from the Gaza Strip, from the former sites of Gush Katif community?

Soldiers who said everything will be fine, and commanders who told them to say it, just which part of all of this is fine?

Thanks to TheLandofIsrael.com for sponsoring the free stream today.

Link: http://voices-magazine.blogspot.co.il/2012/07/seven-years-after-gush-katif-no-its-not.html

Updates throughout the day at http://calevbenyefuneh.blogspot.com. If you enjoy "Love of the Land", please be a subscriber. Just put your email address in the "Subscribe" box on the upper right-hand corner of the page.Twitter updates at LoveoftheLand as well as our Love of the Land page at Facebook.
.