Words of Farewell in the Synagogue of Ganei Tal One Hour before the Expulsion

August 17, 2005

By: Shoshi Slutsky

“Even if our mouths were filled with song as the sea, our tongues filled with joy as its many waves, our lips filled with praise as the wide sky, our eyes bright as the sun and the moon, our hands spread like an eagle’s wings and our feet as light as gazelles, we would not be able to thank you enough, our God and God of our fathers”.

We thank Thee for the opportunity to have lived in this wonderful place for twenty-seven enchanting years of creation, and of love toward this good earth that reciprocated by giving us bountiful crops and helped us prosper.

We cannot thank Thee enough for the spiritual strength you have given us over the years, which we used to build an outstanding community that helped us cope with tragedy and celebrate our joys, inside the synagogue and in its courtyard.

We cannot thank Thee enough for the wonderful children that grew up in the dunes to become paragons of faith and spiritual strength; they will be able to lead the next generation very differently, in the spirit of Jewish and human ethics.

We cannot thank Thee enough for all the good Thou hast done for us in this place and for the many miracles Thou hast shown us. For many years Ganei-Tal will remain for us a model for future development.

We have all had a very difficult morning and now, my dear Ganei-Tal, we must bid you farewell and say goodbye to all this beauty and grace that accompanied us for so many years.

The Kotsker Rabbi said: “Inside the dark cloud are the nourishing raindrops”. We are now under a very dark cloud, but we are leaving as a special community with our heads held high. We fought for you, Ganei-Tal, and for Gush Katif as a whole; no one will take away from us the power engendered by that struggle.

We shall build you and you shall rise again, Ganei-Tal.



 

GUSH KATIF WILL RISE AGAIN - My Last Letter From Gush Katif - by Rachel Saperstein

August 16, 2005

I am crying. Tears stream down as I write this letter to you.

We are packing. Tonight we will receive our eviction letter. The soldiers will knock at our door and we will answer the door…  Tomorrow we will be put on to buses and brought… who knows where.

Our friends who have been living with us are packing up my home. I am so grateful they are here and doing this awful work. I don’t care if my things are clean or folded carefully. They are just thrown into cardboard boxes provided by the army, each marked with our name and a blue sticker. An ugly red shipping container will probably be put on our front lawn today, the visible sign that we are leaving.

Residents were called to the town hall for an emergency meeting this morning. Our mayor, Lior Kalfa, gave us our instructions. Rabbi Yigal Kaminetzky praised the large crowd of people who did not leave. Eighty percent of Neve Dekalim residents are here today. We are the people who have held out to the end under the most difficult conditions. War weary after five years of bombardment and a year of extreme psychological pressure, we are still here.

Ariel Sharon has won the battle but he lost the war. He has lost the people of Israel. He has crushed the soul of our soldiers.

Gush Katif will rise again, at another time and in another place. We were a source of inspiration, of greatness, a fight well fought, a fight for the right to be a Jew in a Jewish land.

Gush Katif will rise and the Sharon government will be remembered with contempt by the people.

And so this chapter is over.

The communities of Gush Katif

Bedolah בדולח (lit. Crystal)
Bene Atzmon בני עצמון
Gadid גדיד (lit. picking of palm tree fruits)
Gan Or גן אור (lit. Garden of light)
Ganei Tal גני טל (lit. Gardens of dew)
K'far Yam כפר ים (lit. Village of sea)
Kerem Atzmona כרם עצמונה
Morag מורג (lit. Harvest scythe)
Neve Dekalim נוה דקלים (lit. Palm tree Oasis)
Netzer Hazani נצר חזני
Pe'at Sade פאת שדה (lit. the edge of the field)
Katif קטיף (lit. harvest, picking of flowers)
Rafiah Yam רפיח ים
Shirat ha-Yam שירת הים (lit. Singing of the Sea)
Selav שליו
Tel Katifa תל קטיפא