Ha'aretz Journalist: Purpose Of Disengagement Is To Put Settlers In Their Place

2005-04-15

It's time to come home

Avirama Golan

Haaretz

www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/ ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=565299& contrassID=2&subContrassID=4 &sbSubContrassID=0

... By transfering the evacuees from Gush Katif to a brand new neighborhood built especially for them along the beautiful strip of Nitzanim transmits a problematic implicit message. This is a message that says (once again) to the Jewish settlers in the territories: You are a chosen group, unique of its kind. You will not be like all the other Israelis, or the new immigrants, who went with their children and their possessions to find a home for themselves, to locate a neighborhood for themselves, to make friends with the new neighbors, to become a part of a new environment. You are Israel's chosen sons, the state will look after you and again shut you in a community settlement all of your own. You will receive houses with tile roofs, a piece of land, excellent loans and fine infrastructures. Far from South Tel Aviv, Kiryat Shmona, the Beit She'an Valley moshavim, and the villages of the Triangle - far from all the places where inhabitants are staggering under the burden in order to allow you a smooth transition, without unnecessary pain.

If this is what the government does in the evacuation of Gush Katif, the main sting of the evacuation of the settlements will be neutralized, and that is the first, one-time opportunity to make it clear to the Jewish settlers what most of the inhabitants of Israel have been wanting to make clear to them for quite some time now: When the day comes, they will come to live like everyone else and with everyone else. They should come home. If that does not happen, it will be as though nothing has been done.

Source: IMRA – Independent Media Review and Analysis