Last week, I went to a gorgeous place. There I felt my feet melt into the wading water of the breathtaking beach as the sand overcame me. I smelled the bloom of flowers growing wild all around. I sunk my teeth into a juicy mango picked from a tree miraculously growing out of the sand like a rose bursting out of concrete. I heard constant gunshots behind the enormous flowing dunes of sand juxtaposed by the laughter of little children playing in the street. There, I feasted my eyes on paradise.
My weekend at the Gaza Strip was certainly heavy-hearted. Being in Israel is quite a risk as it is, but Gaza, a place that makes headlines practically every other day, generates a different caliber of trepidation. Despite my mother’s apprehension, I joined about 30 other Americans and Canadians to the infamous spot to see for myself exactly why there is so much hullabaloo over such a supposed “cesspool.” Much to my surprise, a cesspool it was not, but full of fear and angst as well as immense pride and love, it most definitely was.
My friend and I were placed with a warm family for lunch to hear their stories, fears, hardships, aspirations, and ideals. Their tales nearly brought tears to my eyes as accounts such as theirs go criminally underrepresented. The father of the household told us of the first seeds he planted around his new home 20 years ago. As a result of the mandate of a return of the Sinai Peninsula to Egypt, he was transported from his previous house in 1979 as part of the Camp David Accords. Already having been a refugee, he refuses this subjection neither upon himself nor upon his growing family yet again; especially, not by his own government.
Unfortunately, due to Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s new plan, my friends might have no choice. The Israeli prime minister, without having yet consulted his own cabinet, is proposing a mass transfer of over 7,800 Jews from Gaza as part of the plans for the new security fence between Israel and the Palestinians. Their settlement, Neve Dekalim, was initially created mostly by refugees of the 1979 Accords who sought sanctuary in what they considered to be safe and clearly part of the Jewish state. Now, once again, they might be torn from the land they grew to love and nourish all this time.
Not only is the transfer of these people abhorrent, it is a display of a blatant double standard. Despite the fact that the status of the territories that the Israeli army has been accused of “occupying” is more along the lines of disputed, the Israel Defense Forces is most certainly is not kicking Palestinians out of their homes. Now, however, when such action might actually be taking place, against registered Israeli citizens for that matter, the world sits silently. Ironically, when the Israeli army finally rightly claimed the life of “spiritual leader” Sheikh Yassin last week, a.k.a. a well known terrorist and co-founder of the militant terrorist organization Hamas, sitting silently was the last thing on the world’s agenda. It’s quite interesting how evacuating innocent women and children from their well-established homes doesn’t evoke even a fraction of such a reaction.
Israel promises compensation or aid in the transfer, but how many times must one be uprooted entirely in his/her lifetime? The land and the homes where these families dwell has been nurtured and built by their bare hands. It is not so simple to just get up and move.
How do these communities plan to fight? Not with guns or violence, but with love. Families such as the one I met plan on continuing their lives regularly, praying, planting, and going about their business. No uprising. No true defense. They plan to fight with their souls; just a claim to their home and an undying determination, resilience and belief in G-d.
Leah Vitale is a Collegian columnist on exchange in Israel.
