Tuesday, May 02, 2006
From Anita Tucker, exiled from her Gush Katif farm
I just now received your letter about the upcoming 40 yrs. since the freeing of Har Habayit, the need for action, and all your reactions full of enthusiasm and practical suggestions. I know you are all tired of just words but I must tell you, you can't imagine how refreshing and uplifting reading your emails were.
Last night we had an asefat chaverim (group meeting) to discuss the problems concerning the caravillot (pre-fab trailors) we are supposed to move into sometime soon, and the problems with the progress on our permanent yishuv, which actually should have been a positive discussion in our particular situation. The evening began with a sweet, non-religious woman from one of those PR companies that "professionally" help lead discussions. Apparently we get a certain amount of hours of the company's services as part of our compensation deal from SELA -whoopee! Just the thing to solve our problems!
She asked how we thought we wanted to experience this Yom Haayzmaut . First there was silence as we all knew more or less how we all felt and we had all discussed this to a pulp at our Dining Room discussions over lunch in Ein Tzurim (transit camp).
Feeling sorry for this woman who had come all the way from Herzelia to earn her keep, I broke the silence saying that I would certainly say the Hallel prayer as it is a p'sak of our Rabbis and as I am grateful for the State as a tool that was and please G-d, will be, a means of realizing the stages of Geulah .
BUT,I asked, why are so many of our leaders wasting so much time and energy on discussing, without end, why we must celebrate Yom Haatzmaut, how much, precisely how, etc. while there is total silence on any discussion about the terrible cruelty that was perpetrated in Eretz Yisrael to Gush Katif and to its people, and, as of this moment, will, chas vechalila, God forbid , apparently soon be repeated in more places? This is horrible, terrible, incomprehensible. Yet this issue does not elicit any excitement or reaction or leadership.
I feel as though the Rabanim are telling me that Miriam and the women of Israel should have taken out their tamborines, their flags and grills etc. and had a chafla to thank God in the midst of crossing the Red Sea, while the Egyptians were still chasing them, and not to postpone their celebration, song and dance until after the event, when they had safely crossed the sea. But that's when Moshe sang Az Yashir – when the event was safely and miraculously concluded.
For me, this year, other than going to the Beit Knesset, Hallel and a shiur it will not be appropriate to celebrate. At most we will meet our need for togetherness with my Netzer Hazani Kehila .
I am in mourning for my piece of Eretz Yisrael! This must not happen again! The little flags I saw strung all over the kibbutz, the very flag that is the symbol of my Medina, has been trampled on. Today, this flag causes me much pain. It is the same flag, the symbol, that was cruelly and purposefully placed on the vests of the IDF soldiers who expelled me from my piece of Eretz Yisrael. It was intended to be intimidating by its power, yet acceptable to both me and the IDF soldiers because of our loyalties. It succeeded in making me recoil.
My friends, who slowly began to speak at this forced "PR" discussion expressed some pretty harsh things about our state and Yom Haatzmaut and their state of mourning. The result was that we all were subject to more pain and suffering as each of us heard, yet again, the suffering of the others. It was, as these professionally induced discussions often are, a "pain in the neck" serving no purpose other than to make us all feel double miserable.
The chain of endless, organized evil, encompassing all the many, complex steps – from PR people to politicians, to the Knesset, to the police, army and then the Sela administration - which led to the Gush Katif tragedy, is mind-boggling.
It is the result of a very sick system, originating from our heads of state as were the plans at Amona where thousands of policemen were sent to destroy nine houses.
Friday's headlines in the Israeli newspapers announced in bold headlines that the "Settlers" will soon be taken out of more towns in Judea and Samaria, and in finer print, that these are the guidelines of the new government.
PR firms are being paid generously to ensure that the Israeli public is properly prepared psychologically to accept this upcoming cruelty as an accomplished fact. They assume that if an upcoming evacuation is accepted as "fact" now, there won't be much opposition when it chas vechalila actually takes place. By then, everyone will have been properly brainwashed.
But we have not given up. We, of Gush Katif, with whatever energy we have left but with more faith than ever, must build anew our lives. But I pray that all you who still have a house, a job, a town… can you, will you, help save our dear land and people ?
after the Memorial Day Ceremony, Anita sent this:
... our ceremony was very long but unbelievably powerful and so sad. They did not have a flagpole nor a flag since lowering it to half mast was superfluous as the flag has been at half mast since we were expelled from Gush Katif.
The memorial was mainly a longing for a piece of Eretz Yisrael and an expression of faith that it will be again reclaimed . A faith that those of our dear ones whose blood that we left spilt on that strip of Eretz Yisrael will intervene beKisseh Hakavod (G-d's judgement) for our hatzlacha baderech (total success) until b'niyat Habinyan Hashalem, Our Holy Temple is Rebuilt.
Last night we had an asefat chaverim (group meeting) to discuss the problems concerning the caravillot (pre-fab trailors) we are supposed to move into sometime soon, and the problems with the progress on our permanent yishuv, which actually should have been a positive discussion in our particular situation. The evening began with a sweet, non-religious woman from one of those PR companies that "professionally" help lead discussions. Apparently we get a certain amount of hours of the company's services as part of our compensation deal from SELA -whoopee! Just the thing to solve our problems!
She asked how we thought we wanted to experience this Yom Haayzmaut . First there was silence as we all knew more or less how we all felt and we had all discussed this to a pulp at our Dining Room discussions over lunch in Ein Tzurim (transit camp).
Feeling sorry for this woman who had come all the way from Herzelia to earn her keep, I broke the silence saying that I would certainly say the Hallel prayer as it is a p'sak of our Rabbis and as I am grateful for the State as a tool that was and please G-d, will be, a means of realizing the stages of Geulah .
BUT,I asked, why are so many of our leaders wasting so much time and energy on discussing, without end, why we must celebrate Yom Haatzmaut, how much, precisely how, etc. while there is total silence on any discussion about the terrible cruelty that was perpetrated in Eretz Yisrael to Gush Katif and to its people, and, as of this moment, will, chas vechalila, God forbid , apparently soon be repeated in more places? This is horrible, terrible, incomprehensible. Yet this issue does not elicit any excitement or reaction or leadership.
I feel as though the Rabanim are telling me that Miriam and the women of Israel should have taken out their tamborines, their flags and grills etc. and had a chafla to thank God in the midst of crossing the Red Sea, while the Egyptians were still chasing them, and not to postpone their celebration, song and dance until after the event, when they had safely crossed the sea. But that's when Moshe sang Az Yashir – when the event was safely and miraculously concluded.
For me, this year, other than going to the Beit Knesset, Hallel and a shiur it will not be appropriate to celebrate. At most we will meet our need for togetherness with my Netzer Hazani Kehila .
I am in mourning for my piece of Eretz Yisrael! This must not happen again! The little flags I saw strung all over the kibbutz, the very flag that is the symbol of my Medina, has been trampled on. Today, this flag causes me much pain. It is the same flag, the symbol, that was cruelly and purposefully placed on the vests of the IDF soldiers who expelled me from my piece of Eretz Yisrael. It was intended to be intimidating by its power, yet acceptable to both me and the IDF soldiers because of our loyalties. It succeeded in making me recoil.
My friends, who slowly began to speak at this forced "PR" discussion expressed some pretty harsh things about our state and Yom Haatzmaut and their state of mourning. The result was that we all were subject to more pain and suffering as each of us heard, yet again, the suffering of the others. It was, as these professionally induced discussions often are, a "pain in the neck" serving no purpose other than to make us all feel double miserable.
The chain of endless, organized evil, encompassing all the many, complex steps – from PR people to politicians, to the Knesset, to the police, army and then the Sela administration - which led to the Gush Katif tragedy, is mind-boggling.
It is the result of a very sick system, originating from our heads of state as were the plans at Amona where thousands of policemen were sent to destroy nine houses.
Friday's headlines in the Israeli newspapers announced in bold headlines that the "Settlers" will soon be taken out of more towns in Judea and Samaria, and in finer print, that these are the guidelines of the new government.
PR firms are being paid generously to ensure that the Israeli public is properly prepared psychologically to accept this upcoming cruelty as an accomplished fact. They assume that if an upcoming evacuation is accepted as "fact" now, there won't be much opposition when it chas vechalila actually takes place. By then, everyone will have been properly brainwashed.
But we have not given up. We, of Gush Katif, with whatever energy we have left but with more faith than ever, must build anew our lives. But I pray that all you who still have a house, a job, a town… can you, will you, help save our dear land and people ?
after the Memorial Day Ceremony, Anita sent this:
... our ceremony was very long but unbelievably powerful and so sad. They did not have a flagpole nor a flag since lowering it to half mast was superfluous as the flag has been at half mast since we were expelled from Gush Katif.
The memorial was mainly a longing for a piece of Eretz Yisrael and an expression of faith that it will be again reclaimed . A faith that those of our dear ones whose blood that we left spilt on that strip of Eretz Yisrael will intervene beKisseh Hakavod (G-d's judgement) for our hatzlacha baderech (total success) until b'niyat Habinyan Hashalem, Our Holy Temple is Rebuilt.
