AFTERSHOCKS
The convulsive Retreat-Expulsion from
These aftershocks were not unforeseen. They
were accurately predicted in warnings irresponsibly ignored by the regime that
set off the cataclysm.
A few weeks before the
Retreat-Expulsion was carried out, the High Court of Justice --
Among the consequences thus far:
[1] A spiritual and
historical continuity that held for 4,000 years was broken when a government of
[2] This voluntary
renunciation has earned the contempt it deserves. After watching a once staunch
nation allow its elected rulers to betray it, outside powers and would-be
powers regard and treat
[3] The mindless cowardice
of the Retreat-Expulsion encourages enemy belligerence and inflames hopes of
victory. It is thus nonsense to classify the exercise as "a step toward
peace".
[4] The Oslo Accords
perpetrated in 1993 empowered the terrorists whose profession is the murder of
Israelis. No government since then has taken any serious or effective action to
reverse that empowerment. The incumbent regime, ignoring the bloody lessons of
the
It deprives
As the instruments of
attack are redistributed to terror bases in
For many years, valiant young men of the IDF were
sent into peril and too often were slain or wounded or slain in the endeavor to
keep terrorist weapons from flowing from
The regime's own
"Disengagement Law" rules that no property confiscated from the Gaza
Jews can be turned over to PLO terrorists. Yet a regime so lawless that it
ignores even its own regulations gave the PLO about 400 public buildings.
The terrorists now in
charge in
The IDF and the police as well are now used more
conspicuously against Israeli citizens the regime dislikes than against enemy
attacks, terrorism, and crime.
The regime and its chieftain did loudly promise that
there would be "unheard of reponse" to post-retreat terrorism. It
keeps its word. Nothing has been heard of a response.
[5] To force through its cherished Retreat-Expulsion
plan, the regime so grossly betrayed the Israeli electorate that it wrecked the
political compact between government and governed.
It trampled on lawful dissent, with the compliance
of a carefully-chosen Attorney General, a uniquely arrogant judiciary, and a
corrupted police force.
It undercuts the basic
doctrine of equality before the law, by treating alleged offenders not
according to the offense but according to the whim of a judge or government
official who classifies criticism of the regime as an act of sedition.
For example: At times, university
students demonstrating for lower tuition fees or taxi-drivers demonstrating for
higher fares block sidewalks or traffic. If this brings a charge of
misdemeanor, the maximum penalty is a monetary fine. But when girls aged 13 to
15 block a sidewalk while protesting the Retreat-Expulsion they are held in
prison for months without trial, because Miss Supreme Court Justice Ayala
Procaccio and Miss Justice Minister Tzipi Livni find them guilty of
"criminal ideology".
* * * * * * * * * * * *
Some of the aftershocks
and tremblors may not be felt for some time to come. One consequence of the
cataclysm was immediately evident: The suffering that the regime inflicts upon
the victims of the Expulsion.
Since the start of its
modern history in 1948,
They earned this fate by
being among the nation's most dedicated and well-behaved citizens, productive
adults and promising children. They were crushed not by the enemy that had
rained thousands of missiles upon them but by a corrupt regime and the
compliance or indifference of too many of their fellow citizens.
In advance of executing
its Retreat-Expulsion, the regime promised "a solution for everyone"
-- that is, everyone whose home it demolished, whose livelihood it took away,
and whose community it wrecked. In the months since then, the regime's SELA
[Disengagement Authority] exerts itself only when there is an opportunity to
harass the victims.
The residents of the
destroyed communities are desperately anxious to remain together as
communities, so they can try to rebuild their lives jointly with their
long-time friends and neighbors. Therefore, SELA goes out of its way to break
up communities and even families and scatter them in far-apart places.
Ministers of the regime
blabber about the pressing need to develop the
SHELTER
The regime that had been
preparing the Expulsion for so long did not make a start on preparing even
inadequate substitute housing or facilities.
From the first day onward,
it did nothing to help its victims cope with the many problems and distresses
it forced upon them. All moral and material support and assistance comes from
volunteers, singly or banded together. Proud and once self-sufficient citizens
are left with no alternative but to take charity from strangers.
Children are without
schools. Students are not able to take their exams and not allowed to take
make-up exams. When students are willing to commute to distant schools to keep
up their education, the regime refuses to help with the costly bus fares. There
are no provisions for children with special needs.
It was known far in
advance that the families dragged from their homes would be without shelter, so
SELA reserved 1,000 hotel rooms to accommodate 1,750 families numbering some
10,000 individuals. Even bureaucrats should have been able to calculate that
whole families would be jammed together into one often tiny hotel room in an
often run-down hotel.
In these quarters, the
refugees cannot even prepare a meal or do laundry. They do not have access to
personal possessions, and some are bereft even of clothing and toilet articles.
They are under threat of summary eviction if the hotel wants to be rid of them
or SELA fails to pay the hotel.
Under these conditions,
some families prefer to set up tent encampments. Residents of nearby
communities invite them into their homes to take showers and wash clothing.
Now and then, SELA
discovers an apartment that is empty because nobody will rent it, offers it to
some refugee family, and then absolves itself: "We found them a place and
they would not take it".
The regime's contribution
to solving the misery it created is a belated start on construction of a
limited number of fiberglass "caravellas". These are very small
temporary lodgings similar to what Americans call a "trailer" and
British call a "caravan". They cost $100,000 each, and are slated to
be destroyed after three years.
Even these sorry
accommodations were not ready until several months after the Expulsion. They
are jerry-built and flimsy, not leak-proof and not fire-proof and without the
reinforced "safety room" required by Israeli law. They strand so
close together that privacy is impossible. The regime bulldozed the comfortable
homes that large families had built for themselves, and jam adults and children
into a few square yards of space. Their furnishings and household goods -- if
they still have them at all -- do not fit into these meager quarters, so they
have to get smaller things at their own expense.
In a caravella encampment
designed by SELA there is no synagogue, no mikve [ritual bath], no grocery
store, no kosher food, no playground for children, no recreation for teenagers,
not even adequate bus service. In the winter rainy season the ground is mud
with sewage running through it.
For a key to a caravella,
SELA requires a deposit equivalent to $3,000, that the family will forfeit if
it does not stay for at least two years. The monthly rent is equivalent to
$450.
Excerpts
from "The Jewish Refugees," by Caroline Glick,
[. . . . ] Children and
youths have an almost psychotic fear of policemen and soldiers. 'When they see
soldiers or policemen these kids start shaking uncontrollably and become
hysterical,' explains Eliya Tzur, the head of the One Heart volunteer
organization that has been helping the residents get reestablished.
"The Education Corps
of the IDF wanted to send officers to come to the schools to talk with them. I
warned them not to," Tzur, a 24-year-old college student from
The government has met all
[emotional and social] problems with indifference. The Labor Ministry has yet
to set up an employment office in Nitzan. There is only one social worker
assigned to the Potemkin town. Much of the property of the regional council in
There is still no mikve
[ritual bath]. There is no grocery store. Buses come through twice a day and a
taxi ride to the grocery store costs over
One Heart organized
workshops on everything from job searches to resume writing to teaching parents
how to assert their authority over their children. Its volunteers scour the
surrounding cities of
When they tried to bring
in a mobile home for a pizzeria, the Defense Ministry refused to allow it. Only
Ministry contractors can bring in mobile homes -- even though each mobile home,
for no apparent reason, costs the taxpayers NIS 400,000 [$89,000] and the
mobile home One Heart planned to bring in cost only NIS 120,000 [$26,650].
As the residents sink into
impoverishment, someone is apparently getting rich at Nitzan. It would be
interesting to know how the contracts were awarded.
"Perhaps the most
terrible thing about Nitzan," Tzur says, "is that we at One Heart
have so much work to do here. We're just a bunch of students. Why are we
necessary?"
Comment: Five months after the
Expulsion, a quarter of the refugees do not have even this much, but are still
stuck in tents or hotel rooms, or dormitories.
EMPLOYMENT
More than 2,000 people
were deprived of their livelihood. Of these once self-sufficient and productive
citizens, about 85 percent are now unemployed.
Some cannot obtain
permanent employment because they have no permanent residence. Others have been
shunted off to places where there are no jobs available and no transportation
to places where they could seek jobs.
Farmers who had grown the
finest produce are dropped in areas where neither the climate nor the soil is
suitable for them to resume farming. Some who spent a lifetime developing their
land and greenhouses simply cannot start over again. If they can start growing
things again, they will no longer have the export markets that had once
welcomed the produce. No more than about 20 percent of the farmers have been
able to return to their mission of making the Land fruitful.
People who founded and managed
successful enterprises are discouraged from starting over again. If they are
offered any employment it is on the lowest level. Those who lost businesses and
would like to re-establish them in the Caravella camps are not allowed to do
so.
Those who were
self-employed or employed in non-profit fields such as education and health are
denied even standard unemployment benefits.
This vast resource of
experience, knowledge, ability and energy goes to waste.
POSSESSIONS
When the victims of the Expulsion
were dragged from their homes and carried off they were able to carry very
little with them.
Almost all of their
possessions -- clothing, books, toys, household goods, furniture, appliances --
were stuffed into storage containers. Each household was allotted two
containers at a charge of 3000 shekels [$670] each, with extra charges for
packing by contractors for the Ministry of Defense. Whatever did not fit in was
left behind.
The containers were sent
to a site in the
The regime does not permit
refugees access to their containers. They can only retrieve belongings if they
take permanent delivery of the containers and empty out the contents. That is
rarely possible for people who do not have homes, or have temporary homes too
small to hold their belongings. The owners have not received the compensation
owed to them for the destruction of their homes and businesses, so may not be
able to pay access or delivery fees of 7000 shekels [$1,500].
Residents of the
caravellas who did have their containers delivered found some goods missing and
extensive breakage and damage to furniture, closets, bookshelves, refrigerators
and other property. Much of what they had in their lost houses cannot be
squeezed into the tiny overcrowded caravellas, and the regime forbids them to
keep the containers for storage space.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
The Expulsion took place in
the dry heat of August. Months later, when cold and wet weather set in, there
was no access to warm clothing packed away in the containers.
Most American Jews are
indifferent to the plight of these particular refugees, but some groups and
individuals did send shipments of clothing and other necessities.
Ehud Olmert, the regime's
Minister of Finance, slapped an import tax of 28 percent on these donations.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
COMPENSATION
The regime promised
compensation for the houses and businesses it confiscated and destroyed. It is
supposed to be distributed by SELA. Five months after the Expulsion, SELA has
not distributed much except falsehoods to the news media.
It avows that each evicted
family had received an initial payment of $50,000. That is not true. It was not
an exaggeration. It is a fabrication.
It also made an official
statement that "almost all of the evacuees had received the compensation
that they had coming to them". Perhaps this is a way of saying that
according to SELAH they had nothing coming to them. Indeed, it acts as though
it does believe exactly that.
[1] It
whittles down the number of claimants eligible for any compensation at all.
It says "Nothing for you" to anyone:
-- Who
lived in a home for less than three years
-- Who
lived in a home privately rented, even if for there for as long as 20 years
-- Who is
not married. (Does this apply if one's spouse was murdered by terrorists?}
It also disqualifies at
whim. A rabbi evicted from his home in Gush-Katif shortly after he was wounded
in a terrorist attack was sent a letter informing him that his family would not
get any compensation, but not mentioning ant reason. The letter came to the
hotel where the rabbi and his wife and their 12 children are living in one room
where they were robbed of whatever valuables they still had.
[2] From those claimants
that SELA fails to disqualify altogether, it demands proof that they had
actually lived in the houses from which they had been expelled:
-- telephone and/or electricity
bills for the entire length of the alleged residence -- even if that goes back
for 29 years.
-- accumulations of old
envelopes addressed to them at the alleged residence.
-- school report cards for
children now grown-up adults.
Comment: If SELA really needs
proof of residence, it could be found in official files of income tax returns.
The absurd demands are more likely a form of mockery than a quest for
information.
[3] If and when the
evicted receive any compensation, it will be minus deductions for:
-- the cost of the hotel
rooms in which SELA placed and kept them
-- fees for health
insurance coverage
-- mortgage payments for
the houses the regime destroyed
-- utility company charges
for disconnecting service to the houses destroyed
These charges are in
addition to the exorbitant fees for the storage containers in which so many
possessions were lost or ruined.
There is also harassment
by business companies for fees, cut-off fees, and "breach of
contract" fines.
[4] The evicted were
assured of immediate payment of 50,000 shekels [$11,000] for urgent needs, to
be deducted from the final compensation. The majority of the evicted have not
received any emergency relief. Furthermore, it will be denied to any victim who
has not met the impossible and unnecessary demands for documentation.
Few if any of the evicted
families, in however dire need, has yet received "emergency relief".
[5] The maximum
compensation dictated by the regime will in any case fall far short of the real
value of the houses, business and other property taken from the victims. For
business, the compensation is not likely to come to more than 15 percent of the
value.
That is, if the
compensation is ever paid at all.
* * * * * * * * * * *
* * * * * * * * *
Among the Jewish victims
of the expulsion are a husband and wife, now in their eighties, who are
survivors of the Nazi death camps.
The regime that took away
their home has not given them any relief or compensation.
* * * * * * * * * * *
* * * * * * * * *
The conduct of the regime
and SELA is shameful enough. Just as shameful or more so is the failure of
Israelis and Diaspora Jews to protest.
This passive indifference
may be in part due to ignorance. Very little of the plight of the Expulsion
victims is reported by newspapers and news broadcasts, nor is there editorial
protest of the hardships the regime inflicts upon them.
The news media in
A rare expression of
concern comes from Ari Shavit, who is a columnist for the far-left anti-Judaic
newspaper Ha'aretz. Although he himself supported the Retreat-Expulsion, he writes
thus of the moral aftershock:
The hard-heartedness of
the intellectual and legal elites in the face of the catastrophe that befell
the residents of Gush Katif will not be forgotten. It will seep into the
groundwater of our shared lives and pollute it.
END