REVISITING GAZA

Cross posted from Grandma's Army  

Jews and their Israelite ancestors had lived in Gaza since Biblical times. An historic Jewish community existed in Gaza City prior to its expulsion by the British, for safety reasons (after many had been massacred), during the infamous 1929 riots by the city’s Arabs.  Land for the village of Kfar Darom (in the Gaza Strip) was purchased in the 1930’s and settled in 1946. It was evacuated following an Egyptian siege in the 1948 Arab-Israeli War.

In1968, Yigal Allon presented an initiative for the founding of two paramilitary settlements in the centre of the Gaza Strip. He viewed the breaking of the continuity between the northern and southern Arab settlements as vital to Israel's security in the area - which had been captured the previous year in the 1967 Six-Day War.

In 1970, Kfar Darom was re-established as the first of many Israeli villages in the area. Allon's idea was ultimately designed with five key areas slated for Israeli presence along the length of the Gaza Strip. After the Israel-Egypt Peace Treaty, and the dismantling of Yamit south of Rafah, the fourth and third strips were united into one bloc - that would become known as Gush Katif (literally translated as “Harvest Bloc”).

On May 29^th, 1977,  the first Gazan Jewish village in modern times, Nezer Hazani, was formally established amid the sand dunes of the Gaza Strip - when a military outpost was transformed into a civilian community. On the day of the opening ceremony, the then Prime Minister, Yitzhak Rabin, Head of the Labour Party, announced:

"This is a great day for the State of Israel and Jewish settlement. It is a day that symbolizes the strengthening of our presence in this area which, since the Six Day War, has become an integral part of the state and its security”.

Throughout the 1980’s, new communities - mostly agricultural cooperatives (moshavs)  were established among the barren sand dunes. The sum of exports from the greenhouses which were owned by 200 farmers, came to $200,000,000 per year and made up 15% of the agricultural exports of the State of Israel. The combined assets in the Gush were estimated at $23 billion! It was the first time in the world that successful farming was accomplished on former sand dunes.

During the first Intifada (1987-1990), which broke out in nearby Gaza, the residents of Gush Katif were on the forefront of the violence. Since the beginning of the al-Aqsa Intifada (2000), Gush settlements were the targets of thousands of violent attacks by Palestinian militants. More than 6,000 mortar bombs and Qassam rockets were launched from Gaza. Most of the ground attacks were infiltrations and shootings. There were also attempts to infiltrate by sea. 42 residents of Gush Katif were killed by Arab terror (before Hamas) and countless others wounded.

The unilateral withdrawal of Israel in 2005 from Gaza - comprising 22 thriving communities - for the sake of “peace”, created the largest terrorist base in the world. It was led by the Palestinian Liberation Organisation (PLO), graduates of terrorist camps in Yemen, Iraq, Sudan, Syria, Lebanon and Tunisia.

When Israel left Gaza, Hamas was elected the new governing party. The founding document of Hamas calls for the destruction of Israel and the murder of Jews. As long as this remains the guiding document for  the Palestinian leadership, the dream of peace remains an illusion.