A TESTIMONY OF PERSONAL RESISTANCE


Monday: August 15, 2005

The Day of Reckoning has arrived. Implementation of the Disengagement Plan is beginning today. I spent the morning gathering my supplies of food, water, clothing and packing my sleeping bag. I wasn't sure what my destination would be, but I knew I'd be heading south towards Gush Katif. The general instructions were to head south to Netivot, Ofakim or Sderot and from there groups would organize on their way to the Kisufim Junction outside Gush Katif.

Around 4.30 p.m. we set off in two cars. We were five adults in a van and another three people in a second car. There were reports of roads being closed by the police and additional checkpoints to stop people from converging on the Gush. We decided on our route and surprisingly encountered no obstacles. We arrived in Netivot quickly and were told to go to the Babe Sali's gravesite. Upon arrival there were a lot of people.

Representatives of the Council for the Jewish Communities in Judea, Samaria and Gaza were busy organizing everyone. Vehicle owners were asked to sign up for convoys. People without cars were organized into walking groups. If there were spare places in cars people on foot could have rides.

My husband had driven our van, but he was not staying. He had to return to Jerusalem for meetings the next day. Nor could he drive us to some further point because he could not risk having the car landlocked. We joined the people in the second car. In fact we were actually seven adults in a five-seater. It was risky, but none of us were turning back.

The army and police were beginning to encircle the area. At about 9.00 p.m. the convoys assembled. The drivers met separately for instructions how to drive. At first we were going to drive without headlights, but that idea was abandoned because the fields we traversed were too rough. We drove very slowly, about 15-20 kilometers per hour. We were headed to a place called Re'im. In fact it is about 20 kilometers from Netivot, not very far. But we could not travel by road because we would have been stopped by the police or the army. The entire area, including Re'im, was in a closed military zone. So, we had to find an alternate route over the fields.

Three convoys of about 15 cars each began the journey. We travelled for hours. Sometimes our wheels got stuck in the mud and we, the passengers, would get out and walk along the side of the road for a while and then get back into the car. We were lucky, we never went into a ditch. A few cars did and then the convoy stopped while they were pulled out. The dust was awful and we kept the windows closed. Sometimes we saw the flashing lights of police cars and suddenly the entire convoy would change direction.

RE'IM (Tuesday, August 16, 2005)

Finally, at 2.30-3.00 a.m. we pulled into a road at the side of an orchard. Someone stepped out of the darkness and said "Welcome to Re'im." We had made it. The other two convoys had been stopped, but we made it. We all heaved a sigh of relief. Each driver pulled into a spot and everyone got out of the cars and stretched. It was pitch black.

We began to meet our co-conspirators. There were families with small children. Groups of young people. Our group consisted of three women 50 and over and one woman in her late forties with two teenage children. We had all come together with one purpose in mind: TO STOP THE DISENGAGEMENT!!

We were soon joined by a large group that had walked from Netivot to Re'im. I suppose we numbered about 150 altogether. After we had something to eat and drink we were called to attention by our Navat (navigator) who would lead us to Kisufim. He told us we would be walking on a dirt road between two fields. Be quiet. Don't talk. Don't use cellphones. In fact, turn the phones off.

We began the second stage of our journey at 3.45 a.m. Kisufim is about 8-10 kilometers from Re'im. As we walked down the dirt road, on our left was a large field of sunflowers. The stalks were very tall, many of them towering over my head. The Navat was at the head of the group. Everyone tried to keep up a fast pace. You must realize that we were all carrying backpacks, sleeping bags, and most important of all, large supplies of water. There would be no water at Kisufim.

Suddenly a bright light appeared -- a search light on a jeep. Someone ran back whispering loudly: INTO THE FIELDS! HIDE! INTO THE FIELDS! We all scattered. I jumped into the field and ran deep into the forest of sunflowers and bent down near the ground. The jeep drove by. After waiting a long time we emerged and began walking down the road. About 10 minutes later we heard a vehicle approaching and once again hid in the sunflowers. Another all clear signal. Back to the road. We managed to walk for about 45 minutes, when we heard another vehicle. We ran into the sunflowers, but were unable to penetrate very deeply. We dropped to the ground. Another vehicle approached from the opposite direction. We heard car doors opening. Men came to the edge of the field and told us to get out. I didn't move, thinking, I could lie still and conceal myself but they had spotted me and just about everyone else. Slowly we all came forward.

One man in a pickup truck said he was the owner of the field and accused us of damaging his property and crop. There were also soldiers, Border Police and an awful looking dog -- a mastiff I believe. They told us we were in a military zone and our presence in the area was illegal. They told us to return to where we came from. After about 20 minutes they drove off. The Navat had disappeared. Obviously, he and a few others had successfully eluded the police and soldiers. We continued for a short distance and saw a military base with soldiers. If we approached any closer we would be seen and quickly apprehended. One individual -- a man -- took charge and said we should return to the area where we left the cars. He kept repeating himself and shepherding everyone back to the rear. After a while there were only about 20 of us left on the road. We saw two paths running off into the fields. We had not noticed them earlier. Some of us thought we should try that route, but then we realized none of us knew where we were going. We were unfamiliar with the area and really needed a guide. We stood around deliberating what to do next. Then we began talking about the man who had convinced so many of the group to return to the parking area. We were very suspicious of him. We began to wonder how the owner of the field knew we were there. Supposedly he had called the army.

After waiting around for another 30 minutes (thinking the guide might show up again) we returned to our base camp. All the people were there except the guy who had appointed himself the new leader and who had encouraged everyone to return. He was an infiltrator -- a Shabaknik -- and had probably been the very person who had notified the authorities of our presence. They work for the Shabak. They are spies who spy on their fellow Jews. We all realized we had to be very careful about what we said and to whom we said it. You don't know who to trust anymore.

Another organizer was on hand who announced that we could sleep in the orchard and remain there during the day and then attempt another trek to Kisufim under cover of darkness. If people did not want to try again they could leave in their cars and retrace their route through the fields. Quite a few people left. They had made their attempt to reach Gush Katif, but had failed.

We decided to stay. I had taken a week off from work for this effort and I wasn't about to give up this easily. We walked into the orchards, found a place to unroll our sleeping bags and prepared to go to sleep. It was already 5.30 a.m. Needless to say we did not sleep long.

I woke up at about 7.00 a.m. Everyone was beginning to stir. Across the clearing an elderly couple were waking up. I had noticed them the night before. He was tall with white hair and he walked with a slight limp. Now, I noticed he was busy holding something long. Suddenly, I realized he was putting on an artificial leg. Even this disability was not going to stop him from reaching Gush Katif. Such dedication.

We found a faucet so we had some running water. We called a general meeting to decide what to do. The woman whose car we had ridden in decided to return to Jerusalem with her two kids. They had had enough. That left us on foot, but we were not ready to go home. Ironically, when our friend tried to drive out the army stopped her. They said she could not exit the area. It was so ridiculous. They kept on telling us that we couldn't stay in the area, yet they would not let her leave. Finally, she found an alternate route.

The army told us we could not remain in the area and then they drove off. We had a group discussion and decided we would stay in the orchard during the day. If necessary we would leave and hide in a different orchard. In other words, play cat and mouse with the authorities.
I tried to sleep but the heat was so oppressive that I couldn't fall asleep. Besides, I was too excited. So, I functioned on adrenalin alone. I did succeed in reading some of the paperback I brought along.

Around 12.30 or 1.30 p.m. word got around that we were moving out. We told someone we were carless. We were put in the back of an old old American car. That's alright -- it moved. All the cars moved out to another orchard. The vehicles were backed in amongst the trees. It was too hot to sit in the car. Everyone got out and lay down on the ground. Luckily we had a nice breeze. Again everyone tried to get some sleep. We also ate some food. After we were in our new location for about an hour someone from Kibbutz Alumim came by. Nice guy. He brought us some apples and water.

He said we would be wasting our time going to Kisufim because as soon as someone appeared there the police arrested them. He related a bizarre event. He said a convoy of cars had succeeded in reaching Kisufim. The people told the army and police they did not want to enter Gush Katif, but wanted to demonstrate at the junction. The army officer in charge told them to come over and talk. They all exited their cars and walked over to him. When they returned to their cars all the keys were gone and they were arrested.

We acquired a new member. From Ofakim. I knew he was legit because he brought greetings to me from my son-in-law. After a few discussions it was decided that we had a new mission. Instead of heading for Kisufim we would go to Gama Junction where the tent city for the soldiers was located. The buses sent to carry out the inhabitants of the Gush originated from Gama. We would assemble there in large numbers and sit on the road. There were several groups of people in the area and we would all converge on this point.

THE ROAD TO GAMA

Around 4.30 p.m. we left our hiding place, formed another convoy and headed for the main road. We found an access point and crossed the main highway. We arrived at a wadi where we hid the cars and ourselves until dark. Other small groups joined us. The drivers were apprehensive about leaving their cars in this isolated spot. How would they retrieve them? We sat around in small groups talking, eating and preparing ourselves. It was a known fact that we would probably get arrested. But if we could hold off the disengagement or stop it altogether it would be worth the price.

Just as we prepared to leave the wadi on foot a jeep with two soldiers and a policeman showed up. The policeman told us we could not leave the immediate area and tried to block our way, but we just walked around him. We knew that other jeeps would be nearby and that our movements would be monitored.

We climbed up out of the wadi. There were steep hills that were not easy to negotiate. In my normal life I do nearly 20 hours of exercise a week: an hour of strenuous walking with weights every day as well as hours in the workout room in a gym and three group exercise classes a week. All of this effort paid off. I was much more agile than many of my companions. Once we reached the top of the hill it was easier and made good progress along what appeared to be a dirt road. Then a jeep appeared and we all ran from the road to the rough terrain where the jeep could not follow us. Lots of rocks and boulders. Slow progress. It was getting darker and we could hear a helicopter overhead. It was still very hot and the sweat was running down my face, arms and back.

We stopped and did a head count. Everyone had a number. We didn't want to leave anyone behind. Another jeep appeared to our left. We had to run for the fields. They weren't really fields. They consisted of rows of trenches. Each one about half a meter deep. So you had a choice of stepping down into each trench or gully and then climbing out to the high ground and then going down into the next trench. Alternatively, you could hop over the trenches landing on the higher ground. But sometimes that high ground had a pipe running along the top. If I jumped over the trenches without thinking then I was ok, but if I thought about what I was doing then I would fall and fall I did several times. But I got right back up and continued on.

It got darker and darker. I had a flashlight but didn't dare to use it. Eventually we got to an area where we could just walk along the higher ground between the trenches. Narrow but doable. A young woman walked in front of me and she had reflectors on her shoes. This was a great help. She stayed with me all the way and was very helpful and caring. It seemed as if this part of the journey went on forever. Although young people had offered to take my backpack and sleeping bag several times I always refused. However, we were running now and speed was of the utmost importance. I surrendered my equipment to a young man. We were all running. There were jeeps around us, far away, but they could not reach us.

GAMA (9:30 p.m.)

At last we saw bright lights in the distance and new we were approaching Gama. We were going to make it! We had outwitted the army and the police. We found a path through some bushes and suddenly we were just 3 meters beyond the road. When we emerged we saw several hundred people sitting in the middle of the road. There were army vehicles in front of the crowd. They could not pass on the road. As I went to take a seat a young woman stood up and embraced me. She had been in the group that had attempted to reach Kisufim. When she had been turned back she had left and returned to Netivot. She had joined up with another group that eventually made its way to Gama. She recognized me and greeted me with Mazel Tov and Kol Hakovod!!

We found ourselves in the front row on the ground. Shlomo Cohen from Kohav Ya'acov had become the leader of the group. He found a microphone and began talking to the crowd. We began singing songs and then a group of young men began reading Tehillim. There were reporters and photographers all around us. Also the army photographer who was carefully using a digital camera to capture all our faces. I suppose there is a huge database that compares all these photos to driver's licenses or something. Big brother knows who we are, where we live and how to apprehend us. Not surprising in this dictatorship that Sharon has established.

More and more people kept arriving. I stood up at one point and looked behind me. I think there were between 800 and 1000 people. We were all exhausted. Our journey had taken about 2-2 and a half hours. Others had walked further: some from Netivot, some from Kfar Maimon. I leaned back on my backpack and drank a lot of water. I was too tired to eat. But I was happy and excited. We had accomplished our goal. Some of my companions thought we would be there all night long and into the day. I explained to them that even if we held out all night we could not survive long in the heat of the day.

We chanted "A Jew does not evict a Jew;" "Policeman, soldier we love you." Soldiers and police and border police were all over and they did not look too happy. We had stopped them. They couldn't run over us -- at least not with the foreign press around. Someone said we should walk to Gush Katif and the crowd started to get up. But then others said no. Stay here and stop the buses. Everyone sat down again.

There was no spokesman for the army/police. No one negotiated with us. No one said you better get up or we will remove you by force. We just sat on the ground, shared food, passed around water, recited Tehillim and sang.

Around midnight there was a shout. Link arms, link arms. I quickly intertwined my arms with the two women on either side of me. Something was happening but the action and movement was coming from behind me. I heard young men shouting "Don't touch the girls. Don't touch the girls." Another said "Don't touch the Savtot." I remember hearing that -- he was referring to us! I knew who said this. We had been talking earlier. We are neighbors. Both from Ramot Alef. The next thing I knew he was flying through the air above my head.

The Border Police and Police were grabbing everyone and were quite brutal about it. There were no policewomen, only men although there were lots of policewomen in the area. The police grabbed boys and girls around their necks and dragged them away. Others were grabbed by their arms and legs and were carried long distances and then thrown on the ground. Others were punched.

A policeman grabbed my left arm, raised it over my head and pulled it backwards. He then dragged me by my arm about 50-60 meters. I was yelling at him to stop all the time. I was fortunate to be wearing my backpack. It protected my back. When he reached the side of the road he just dropped me. I anticipated this so I held my head up so it wouldn't hit the asphalt. Just for the record I am 56 years old. An older woman of 70 or older was treated in a similar manner.

After a few seconds I started to get up. Two young people, a boy and a girl, ran to my side and insisted on helping me. They asked if I was ok. The girl was crying and the youth was agitated. Young people were running into the fields. I thought about doing this myself, but hesitated. I had made it through the fields once, but I was not confident that I could negotiate them a second time with policemen chasing me. Besides I had seen a large number of Border Police enter the fields earlier. I began walking in the direction where I had sat on the road. I was looking for my friends, but did not find them. Then the police formed a wall that moved towards us in order to close in on us. We were between the policemen and the fields. They brought in buses and herded us onto them. I evaded them as long as I could. Eventually I got on a bus.

As soon as the bus was full it began moving. A policemen and a policewoman were on each bus, but they did not speak with the passengers. The children were hysterical. They were crying and wringing their hands. The adults were trying to comfort them.

Some of my group were on the bus. One woman called Honenu -- an organization of lawyers who give legal advice to people who are arrested for resisting or opposing the Disengagement. I asked her for the number and called as well. They told me not to cooperate with the police. Not to give my name or ID number. Exercise your right to silence. Do not agree to be fingerprinted or photographed. The person I spoke with said that thousands of people were being apprehended, but that neither the police nor the courts could handle the numbers and it was almost definite that we would simply be released.

We asked the police where we were being taken, but they would not tell us. One woman was yelling at the policemen, calling them Nazis. A man of about 60 said to them: "Why did you pull my beard? He almost pulled part of it out! That's what the Germans did to my father in WWII." There were two Habadnikim on the bus. The police had pulled their hats and kippot off and stomped on them on the ground.

Some people spoke of a young woman injured and lying on the ground with a broken leg or arm. They said when bystanders asked for a medic to help her the police replied saying that no medics were available. This is inconceivable since we were in an army base. People asked for her to be transported in an ambulance, but the police said she would only be sent out on a bus. I did not see this, I only heard about it. However, I saw enough brutality. And I want to call your attention to the fact that none of the police or border police were wearing name tags as is the regulation. They were told to take them off. There was no way to identify anyone by name. This is absolutely illegal.

I leaned back in my seat and starred out the window. It didn't take long to figure out our destination. First Askelon and then Tel Aviv. At 1.30 a.m. we were put off the bus at the train station in North Tel Aviv. Naturally there are no buses or trains at that time of night. There were young teens who had to get home. We checked that they had money for a sherut or could stay with someone in Tel Aviv until the morning. A lot of people had to get to Jerusalem. We managed to fill up two sheruts. The ride up to Jerusalem was very long that night. My husband met me at Binyenei Ha-uma and we went home.

CONCLUSIONS

Gains vs. losses? Victory vs. defeat? We survived for two days in the field and defied all attempts by the army or police to stop us. We were right to do this. As I emerged from the fields and joined the other protestors at Gama I felt as if this was one of the most important days of my life. No Jew should be evicted from his home. And no other Jew should stand by quietly and let it happen. All the people in Gush Katif and Northern Shomron who are being driven from their homes are heroes. They have endured terrorist attacks, bombardment by kassam rockets and artillery shells. They have been steadfast in the face of the enemy. And how do we repay them -- the government throws them out of their homes! Good people. Hardworking people! They serve in the army, they contribute to the economic growth of the country.

This is not right. This is immoral. This is inhuman. I could not stand by and let this happen without protesting. I refuse to be a bystander.

Sharon's Disengagement Plan has:
1. Rewarded terror and encourages more terror.
2. Torn the country apart by ordering Jews to drive other Jews from their homes.
3. Destroyed the bond between the people and the army. Instead of the army defending Jews and Eretz Yisrael Sharon has enlisted the army to fight Jewish civilians and drive them from their homes where they have lived for 30 years.
4. Made a mockery of Israeli Democracy: the plan was bulldozed through the Knesset by bribery, threats and dismissal of all government officials who opposed him. No discussion, no debate.

My perspective has changed. I no longer have any faith in the Army. Not all orders should be obeyed and those ordering Jews to be driven from their homes should have been refused en masse. Every individual can choose between good and evil. That includes every soldier and policeman. They have failed the test.

Most of the public remained silent. I know countless people who said they opposed the Disengagement, but they did not attend any demonstrations, did not travel to Gush Katif or northern Shomron. They did not get involved. Bystanders!!

I will not remark on the silence of international Jewry. That is the subject of another entry.

I dwell on the fact that Jewish policemen and Jewish Border Police beat up or roughed up young and old alike. They came in with fists swinging and did not for one moment think "Hey, that's my brother, a fellow Jew." Apparently, we do not stand together anymore. We cannot depend on each other anymore. We are not one people anymore. Our oneness has been shattered -- by Arik Sharon and those without the courage to refuse to abet his plan to surrender to Arab Terror.