Katif today

As we lucky ones prepare to close down the week to enjoy Shabbat (or Friday night, the weekend) in the warm comfort of our own homes, I read this message from Rachel Saperstein, a former resident of the Gush Katif community of Neve Dekalim:

A letter arrived from the Bezek Telephone Company. We will have to pay a penalty of IS 280, the letter stated, for breaking our one-year contract for internet use.“The government through us out in August” we countered. “They destroyed our phone lines. Sue the government for breach of contract.” We are awaiting their reply.

Twenty-three Neve Dekalim families received a letter from SELAH – The Expulsion Authority. “We don’t deny you lived in Neve Dekalim. But you rented privately rather than through the local council. So you are not entitled to housing in Nitzan, or compensation of any kind. You have six days to vacate your hotel!”

Five other families received letters saying “Though you rented privately we will allow you to rent a ‘caravilla’ of 60 square meters. But it must be in an area ‘everyone has turned down’.”

We all signed a petition today – Everyone goes or no one goes to Nitzan. And we all will live in the same neighborhood.

Slowly, very slowly, the families are moving out of the hotels and into the prized, paper-thin fiberglass trailers. “Congratulations you have received a prized key!” says their letter.

Like many others Moshe and I have received neither letter nor key nor compensation of any kind, and are simply left in limbo.

Ship containers packed, stored and guarded by the IDF are now reaching the Nitzan Displaced Persons camp. Many have been broken into. Furniture, appliances and clothing were stolen or vandalized. Half-eaten food strewn about by the packers lay moldering in the containers, giving off a stench. Rats left their mark.

But there are those who make a difference. The Band-Aid Fund has sent seed money to each family as it moves into its trailer. But the needs, the replacements, the small items, cost so much. Paying off the mortgage of the destroyed homes, food, electricity, water, payments for the container rental eats away at the small government advance.

Avery Harris of Petach Tikva moves peripatetically among the hotels, tent cities and trailers looking for leaders and encourages their endeavors. Mark Launer of Jerusalem helped establish the Student Loan Fund.

Unemployment among our people is nearly 80%. Rabbi Yosef Rimon of Alon Shvut, a volunteer, has opened an employment agency in Nitzan using the internet as his tool. “Job Katif” is bringing in the data to place our people in jobs. College volunteers help write CV’s and prepare for interviews. Rav Rimon has managed to place people in satisfying jobs and this has made all the difference.

And so we see light, a small light barely flickering. Despite government pronouncements of “a solution for all” there is no help, only the harassment of the authorities. But the decency of private individuals who have come to help, people like yourselves, is making all the difference.

You can read more about the Sapersteins and the ongoing shande that is the legacy of the "disengagement" here. (And, yes, Tim, after 37 years in Israel, they still have Brooklyn accents.)

Shabbat Shalom.