A tour of the Gush Katif settlement bloc yesterday offered no hint that the disengagement had begun. On the surface, everything looked normal, even quieter than usual. „It’s the quiet of war,” said Hannah Sander of the Ganei Tal settlement, whose son, Yehuda, celebrated his bar-mitzvah yesterday.
Despite the closure of Gaza, the army allowed all the guests from outside the Strip to attend. Such gestures did not assuage the residents’ anger; terms such as „ghetto,” „closure” and „curfew” were flung about with abandon. But no one was surprised. Ever since the violent events at the Tal Yam outpost two weeks ago, even the rabbis no longer say that the disengagement will not happen. Immediately after the closure order was issued, a „situation room” was set up in the regional council building in Neveh Dekalim. Hotline operators were braced for a flood of calls from Gush residents, but, in fact, the flow was moderate. „I want to have guests for Shabbat,” said one caller. „Who do I need to register with?” The main pressure point was the Kissufim checkpoint, where residents demonstrated, blocked the road and clashed with soldiers. But inside the settlements, quiet reigned. At the Shirat Hayam and Kerem Atzmona outposts, settlers continued to build huts for disengagement opponents who, according to the pre-closure plan, were supposed to arrive in droves to fill them. And life continued as usual in other ways as well. Many residents escaped the 40 degree Celsius heat by swimming in the sea; the pool and the supermarket were also full. „No one will disrupt our lives,” declared Michael Amsalem, the supermarket manager. „We’ll live here until the last minute. We aren’t stocking up on food, nor are any of the residents. It’s life as usual.” In the evening, singer Ehud Banai came to Ganei Tal. The performance was scheduled only on Tuesday, but despite the closure order, Banai and two accompanists arrived. „I didn’t come to express solidarity with their struggle,” said Banai, who has never been to Gush Katif before. „But I think we shouldn’t disengage from them, nor they from us. I can identify with the human issue, and if I can give them pleasure through music, I’ll be glad.” Banai’s performance in some ways encapsulates the story of Gush Katif over the last two weeks. Following the attempted lynching of a Palestinian teen in Muasi, he posted an angry article on his Internet site in which said of the rioters: „They and I don’t belong to the same religion.” Yet two weeks later, he came to give an unscheduled performance. During the performance, Banai spoke only once. „Let us send up a prayer from here to all the people of Israel – that we get through these difficult times, that we be one nation, a united nation.” But during one song, he invited the audience to sing with him. „What for you is a dream is a nightmare for me,” they sang, and then concluded: „I’m headed for the same place you are, but without a spark of love, nothing will move.” By Yair Ettinger
