Disengagement from Gaza
My memories from Gaza disengagement in 2005
With the ongoing war in the Gaza Strip, I keep reading about the “ongoing Israeli occupation of Gaza”. This blunt lie always brings smile to my face because I clearly remember vacating Israelis from Gaza and closing the gate behind me. I was there on 2005 while all those that tell stories about the “Israeli occupation of Gaza” weren’t.
In 2005 Israel left Gaza, implementing the ‘Disengagement Plan’, proposed and promoted by the then Israeli Prime Minister, Ariel Sharon. Twenty one Israeli settlements in Gaza Strip were dismantled and evacuated all the civilians and army personnel. Four settlements were dismantled in the Northern Samaria.
Personally, I was for the plan back then in year 2005 and still consider it as right move for Israel but this is not to argument for or against the disengagement plan. I want to share some of my own experiences as I remember them.
Preparations
At the time I was a young lieutenant, serving in the IDF. It was obvious to everybody that executing the plan will not be simple as the Jewish civilian population in Gaza and many supporters all over Israel will reject the plan and won’t comply to leave Gaza, and it was obvious that the only way to get these people out was using force. It was also obvious that the army was the only organization with enough manpower and resolve to carry such a controversial operation that roughly half of the Israeli population rejected.
Now, I was a young lieutenant back then but that doesn’t mean I was stupid… I knew that if I didn’t volunteer to be in the force that carried out the plan, I’d be assigned to it anyway. So I volunteered, knowing too well that if it is meant to happen anyway, it’s better that I volunteer for it instead of being ordered to.
It started slowly, men and women from my large army base, most of whom I didn’t know beforehand, gathered together, met the ad-hoc assembled commanders and started our training that took several months before the disengagement events took place. We were given some elementary self defense classes in case we are attacked during the execution of the plan. But what I really remember was the propaganda brainwashing we were subjected to again and again. We were told that we are executing “the law”, we are following “lawful order given to us by the democratically elected government”. I’m not saying it’s not true, I’m saying that it was “pounded” at us again and again, just like any propaganda. “You are executing the law”, “these people are our brothers and sisters but if they resist we will use force to evict them” we were told again and again by the commanders. There was even a stupid slogan: “With sensitivity and determination". This is how we were told we have to carry out the order.
For me, it wasn’t that hard to go along with this propaganda lash but there were soldiers, rejecting the disengagement plan all together, had to endure this brainwashing for weeks and as we all were contract soldiers we couldn’t object it without serious consequences to continued service in the army.
So, whether we approved the disengagement plan or rejected it, we kept preparing for it for few months ahead both physically but mostly mentally as we knew that the execution of the plan is going to be tough, throwing someone out of his house can never be easy. These people had families, businesses and social connections in Gaza settlements. Myself and others have to break these bonds in a moment and throw them out.
Action
A huge bunch of us was deployed, few days before, at the fields of Kibutz Re’im. The same fields that witnessed the Nova party massacre on the morning of Oct. 7. It was a huge dusty army base erected in the fields. We continued training for few days, getting ready. The idea was for every single unit, roughly platoon size, to isolate a house in the settlement and have it vacated. Preferably by convincing the family to leave peacefully. If the family is not willing to leave on their own, we were to use non-lethal force to have them moved to a bus that would take them out of Gaza Strip.
The first “action” we saw was actually to prevent “orange” supporters of the settlers to get into Gaza and increase the number of settlers we had to evict. We lined up in front of a huge crowd of people, we were holding hands and prevented them from reaching Gaza. There was no physical violence but the whole situation of stopping women and children, elderly and young from coming to the aid of their fellow settlers was very emotional for many of us.
Few days later we moved on to the actual eviction of the Israeli settlements in the Gaza Strip. For all of us the first day was the hardest. The settlers and their supporters (that did make it to the settlements) weren’t willing to leave peacefully and after few hours of futile negotiations we moved to forceful removal of settlers from their houses, synagogues and community centers.
The scene was hurt breaking, all of the settlers were crying, cursing us and resisting removal, begging us to stop and join them. The soldiers were crying too, heart broken that they are forced to evict fellow jews from their homes and communities. It was really hard for all of us.
One of the soldiers was a huge guy, helicopter mechanic with grease stains all over him, brute of a guy, per his usual behavior constantly cursing and not afraid to threaten anyone. I saw him cry like a little boy at some moment, that’s how hard it was for all of us. It was harder for the settlers and their supporters.
One settler told us “I built this house, I put my blood and soul into it. I will not give it to any Palestinian nor will I let you drive over it with a tractor. I will burn it to the ground”. I saw many houses burned by their owners.
There was a family that my platoon tried to evict. After hours of futile negotiations the family members were mentally exhausted and were willing to leave. The mother asked us “Ok, where are we going?” That was a breaking moment for me. After months of training, brainwashing and mentally preparing, I realized all of us forgot to ask the basic question: Where are they going??? Neither me, nor my commander knew what to answer. We were throwing people out of their homes and we couldn’t answer this basic question… Where the hell are they going??? Lucky a Lt. Commander that was commanding us was nearby and told them they are going to a guest house in Jerusalem for now. They, heart broken, took that bus.
Vacating synagogues was probably the worst. Many locked themselves in synagogues and cling together and held Toras, as if it was some kind of protection against evil. Begging us not to take them away from that place. The feeling was very much like in a pogrom, only this time, it was I who is playing the Kozak role and I’m the one who is doing wrong to the Jews.
One evening, when the daily work of kicking people from their homes was over and we were finally resting, I saw one of my unit friends crying. I knew that he was deeply against the disengagement plan, he had some family members in one of the Gaza settlements. I tried to calm him down. He told me “I didn’t call home for a week now. I can’t face my family with this. Can’t look them in the eyes”. I blame his commanders, he shouldn’t have been forced to be in this position. Many were happy to execute the disengagement order. Just as many were tormented by it.
In three days this nightmare was mostly over in the Gaza Strip. People were kicked out of their homes. Some kids that were born there, never knew any other home. While the army was quite efficient in vacating the settlers, the disengagement administration was horrible in caring for them. For many it took many years till they found a place they called ‘home’.
The disengagement plan went ahead and vacated four more settlements in the Northern Samaria but I didn’t participate in that one, so can’t share any memories. Suffice to say that it was even worse, as the settlers resisted even fiercer.
Aftermath
I returned to my army base and discovered that no one was willing to hear what we went through. The rest of Israelis saw it all on TV and they had enough. The entire state of Israel wanted to move on and forget this nightmare. Anytime I raised this issue in the first few months, the standard answer by my army buddies was “So what? Do you know how hard all of us worked on the base while you weren’t around?”. I guess we all wanted to forget.
Conclusion
This remains highly controversial and painful issue in the Israeli society. No one likes to talk about it, not the vacated settlers nor the army and police personnel. I never heard of anyone voluntarily saying something like “I was there and I took part in the eviction”.
Since Israel’s disengagement from Gaza, this cursed place, under Hamas rule, became even worse for the Palestinians. Israel was attacked multiple times by Hamas, Islamic Jihad and other groups and the end of hostilities is not in sight.
Gaza is still a painful place for Israel, culminating in the current Israel-Palestinian war that started on Oct. 7
