Yet another emergency meeting will be held in Gush Katif on Sunday, in light of the apparent onset of the withdrawal/expulsion process. On the agenda will be the reports of the beginning of negotiations for financial compensation and other indications that the withdrawal is being implemented.

Promotional literature for the mass gathering states, “Secretly, while bypassing the will of the Likud Party membership, without a Cabinet decision, the government apparatuses are beginning to try to start rolling the wheel of destruction of our towns. We will not sit with our hands folded.”

Katif Communities Council member Rabbi Kobi Bornstein of N’vei Dekalim, the largest community in Jewish Gaza, says that the council plans a series of actions designed to arouse public opinion against the disengagement plan. “The government is planning to carry out this plan in an undemocratic fashion,” he said. “The Cabinet decision was made in a stuttering manner, and does not call for what we see the government actually doing. The government is actually bypassing itself… Sharon is acting like a thief in the night.”

“The Israeli public is stronger than its leadership,” Bornstein said, “and does not allow its leaders to act wrongly. Prime Ministers in Israel have fallen time after time because of mistakes like this. The current Prime Minister, too, will see that he made a big mistake, because the public will arise and make its voice heard… We know that he will wage psychological war against us, and we’re ready.”

Among the planned activities, most of which are still secret, is a plan to create a “live chain” of tens or hundreds of thousands of people from Gush Katif to Jerusalem on the day before Tisha B’Av, the Jewish People’s national day of mourning (July 27). The residents also plan to visit Israeli citizens in their homes around the country, and explain to them on a one-to-one level the importance of remaining in Gaza.

Some 94% of the residents of Gush Katif have signed a petition stating that they “refuse to be bribed” by the government’s offer of compensation to leave their homes.

“The last few nights, we have had meeting after meeting,” writes long-time Gush Katif resident Anita Tucker, “and the people in Gush Katif have decided to stand tall and proud against Sharon and his power-mania effort to murder our souls and spirit by the method of ‘divide and conquer.’ We have lots of experience with the Arabs who tried to murder our bodies, and even after they succeeded in a few cases, we then displayed our best spirit of unity and stood up tall and continued giving support to the families of the fallen and to each other. We will make every effort to continue now as they attempt to murder our honor and spirit by trying to buy our souls for money… “We continue to pray for G-d’s help, and will do our utmost to retain this privilege that we’ve been given of turning a barren desert in the Land of Israel into a blooming oasis. Our strength also stems from the youth and children of Gush Katif, whose love of their home and their homeland is invincible.”

This entry was posted on Sunday, June 13th, 2004 and is filed under news.