"... to the people of the Golan and Judea and Samaria, those who are slated to be next in line for expulsion. We say to you: Don't let them do it! And don't listen to their promises! The absolute worst thing is to be thrown out of your houses... We in Gush Katif could have fought more strongly against it; don't make the same mistake!"
 

(IsraelNN.com) Gush Katif refugees: A long line of cars and dozens of walkers made their way from Yad Mordechai to the northernmost Gaza crossing Sunday afternoon, protesting "1,000 Days Without a Home."

Marking the occasion of 1,000 days since the expulsion, dozens of former Gush Katif people marched and/or drove the four kilometers from the Yad Mordechai Junction to the Erez Crossing between northern Gaza and the Negev. After nearly 33 months of government promises, residents' demands, behind-the-scenes parliamentary work, mass protests, media reports, and more, the problem of the 9,000 Jews thrown out of their homes in Gush Katif simply won't go away. The government has not come close to fulfilling its Disengagement campaign slogan, "A solution for every resident."

Arutz-7 asked organizer Tzuri Ganish, "What is your main message?" His response:

"For one thing, we want the country to know that 1,000 days of suffering has not come to an end. There are people who are sick, homeless, and without a job. Nitzan, the largest of what we call the 'refugee camps,' is very similar to the slums of Khan Yunis... Many people can't afford to build any more, as their compensation money has been eaten up for their every-day expenses. And those who are building are hampered in every way. The government is not solving this problem."

Message to Golan, Yesha: Don't Be Next!

"But our main message," Ganish said, "is to the people of the Golan and Judea and Samaria, those who are slated to be next in line for expulsion. We say to you: Don't let them do it! And don't listen to their promises! The absolute worst thing is to be thrown out of your houses... We in Gush Katif could have fought more strongly against it; don't make the same mistake!"

Ganish said that he had lived in the northern Gaza community of Elei Sinai for 15 years: "It began as a secular community, but little by little, we were able to bring in many religious families, and build synagogues and the like –– but then, just as we were getting going, the expulsion came along. Now Elei Sinai is broken up into seven different groups; I just hope that I will be able one day to live with at least one of them."

"I bought a house in Ashkelon," Ganish said, "so that my children won't have to feel that they are nomads. But what we really want is stability and community, and that is something that is very far away at the moment."

Each of the Gush Katif communities has its own story over the past 32 months, but nearly all of them have in common the following elements: Long and intolerable months waiting in hotels, dormitories, or campsites after the expulsion; one or more transfers, with many of them ending up in small pre-fab homes in hastily-built camps, with little or no infrastructures or public buildings; loss of business and work and great difficulty in finding new employment; psychological stress on families and individuals; lack of stable educational framework for at least a year; unfulfilled government promises to ease the difficulties and reach permanent solutions; and much more.

Avi Farhan, another former Elei Sinai resident –– he was also thrown out of his home near Yamit in the 1982 peace agreement with Egypt –– also helped lead the protest. Relating to government charges that the residents' disagreements among themselves are blocking progress, Farhan said, "Sure, we are to blame for being uprooted from our homes without a fight. We are to blame for giving in to governmental terrorism –– a government that used the army against us instead of preparing it for the war in Lebanon. The facts are known. The refugees are still in Nitzan, Carmiyah, Sderot and Ashkelon."

Farhan said he disagreed with the Likud in 1982 when it evicted the Jews living in Sinai, "but at least it took just a year before we were building our new homes in Elei Sinai. Today, it's already almost three years later and we still have no solution. The government knew how to uproot us on a precise timetable, but 1,000 days later it still doesn't know how to rehabilitate us."

"The elites are apathetic to our plight; that is well-known," Farhan said. "They are also apathetic to the Holocaust survivors, and towards others. But I expect more from the public. The public must wake up and apply pressure upon the government to end this farce already."

Hillel Fendel is senior news editor at Arutz-Sheva This was published in Arutz-7
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/125982

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