Below is probably the saddest Arutz-Sheva email I have ever received. I quote verbatim (emphases added):
1. Violent Expulsion Begins in N’vei Dekalim Synagogue
By Hillel Fendel
Following hours of waiting, the army/police have begun the violent expulsion of over 1,000 youths in the N’vei Dekalim synagogue.The expulsion is being reported to be harder than the police thought.
At 3:20 PM, the local police commander announced by megaphone, “Your stay here is illegal. In ten minutes, we will enter and remove you. Buses will take you to Merkaz Shapira and Jerusalem.”
The large forces began to enter from two, possibly three, different sides some 15 minutes later. The intense prayers continued inside all the while. In the boys’ synagogue – the Sephardic one – several of them linked arms and legs in a last attempt to make their eviction difficult.
The soldiers then pushed their way in and began trying to evict them. It proved very difficult, and the scene was filled with chants of “A Jew doesn’t evict a Jew,” and, “Refuse Orders!”, as well as pushing, pulling, screaming and violence. After a half hour, only 15-20 people had been removed.
As the hours passed, however, the expulsion began to go faster, and some estimated that it would be completed by this evening.
The other synagogue, where close to 1,000 girls were gathered since Tuesday, also began to be emptied of the protestors shortly afterwards. Rabbi Shlomo Aviner performed the act of mourning by rending his shirt, and eulogized the synagogue.
Among the other settlement leaders on the scene were Yesha Council leader Bentzy Lieberman, Amanah settlement organization head Ze’ev Chever (Zambish), Rabbi Chaim Druckman, Rabbi Avinoam Horowitz and many others.
Earlier, Lieberman said the youths would not leave on their own, but that they would definitely not employ violence against those who come to remove them.
The police had been trying to reach a situation in which the youths – many hundreds of boys in the Sephardic synagogue and several hundred girls in the Ashkenazi synagogue, as well as hundreds more milling about outside – walk out on their own.
Earlier, several rabbis made a heart-rending plea to the police to speak with Prime Minister Sharon and have him agree to leave the synagogues intact.
2. The Battle in N?vei Dekalim
By Hillel Fendel
The forced evacuation of families from their homes in the largest Gush Katif community continues. Residents being dragged or walking out amidst weeping and screaming is the order of the day.
The expellees are being loaded onto buses in which the drivers are separated from the passengers by cage-like walls. A soldier is charged with manning each of the bus tires, to protect it from being punctured by those who wish to impede the Jews’ expulsion.
In many cases, expelled children on the buses yell out to the soldiers, “Why are you taking us from our homes? Where are we supposed to go? When you have children of your own, how will you explain to them what we did?”
Arutz-7’s Yishai Fleisher reports on what he said were two of the most powerfully emotional scenes he has witnessed to date: The family of Shai Cohen, with 11 children, leaving their hom, crying and weeping, but singing, “Tehai hashaah hazot sh’at rachamim” – May this hour be an hour of mercy.
Practically next door and at approximately the same time, Mrs. Miri Bednortzuk was taken forcibly out of her home on a stretcher – with her baby on her stomach. The soldiers carrying out of her home for the last time were followed by her other children screaming and sobbing, “What are you doing?! Don’t hurt my mother!”
Many people insist on being taken out with the chair they were sitting on. One woman was taken out of her home in her chair and with her young child on her. In home after home, person after person is being dragged or forced out, one by one, with people outside the homes accompanying them with sobbing and yelling.
Every front door has a sign on it asking the soldiers to stop and think about what they are doing. Many of the signs say that the soldiers must remember that they will be personally responsible for the destruction of the family’s home.
Nearby, some estimates are that 2,000 youths are gathered in, outside and atop the main synagogue complex – and the police and army appear unsure as to how to proceed. At 11:45 AM, a group of rabbis, including Rabbis Chaim Druckman and Shlomo Aviner, arrived at the complex, apparently in an attempt to find a peaceful solution for their evacuation.
Rabbis Yigal Kaminetzky (Gush Katif), Chanan Porat (Kfar Etzion) and Avinoam Horowitz (Kiryat Arba) made heartfelt pleas to the police commander and other officials.
Throughout the night and the morning, youths were talking with soldiers, trying to convince them not to be robotic in their adherence to cruel and senseless orders. There was much crying, Arutz-7’s Eli Stutz reported, especially among the female soldiers – and the males as well.
3. Kfar Darom Expulsion Begins – With Force
By Hillel Fendel
After many of the families in Kfar Darom were forcibly evicted from their homes in heart-rending scenes, the forced expulsion of hundreds of youths from the synagogue began.
IDF Southern Commander Maj.-Gen. Dan Har’el said this morning, “The evacuation of Kfar Darom will end by this evening.” Har’el was named for his uncle who was killed in the battle for Kfar Darom in 1948.
Though a major battle was expected inside the synagogue, the rabbis – among them Rabbis Zalman Melamed and Elyakim Levanon – counseled a peaceful evacuation, sayiand the students left without a struggle. A group of approximately 40 women, some of them holding little children, also faced a stand-off with riot-gear clad policemen, but the near-clash ended peacefully by and large. One of the youths on the roof said, “We are fighting a fight of the spirit.”
Several dozen youths remain on the roof of the synagogue. Security forces are preparing to raise large containers onto the roof. Policemen are in the containers, planning to push the youths into the containers and lower them to the ground.
Late morning report:
The evacuation and destruction of Kfar Darom is expected to be even more violent than that of most of N’vei Dekalim yesterday. Hundreds of youths are gathered atop and inside the synagogue, while the 85 families are not planning to leave their homes without resistance.
IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Dan Halutz arrived in Kfar Darom shortly before noon.
The Medrashah building, which was filled with people resisting the expulsion, was forcibly evacuated in the late morning hours.
The police and army forces have begun to evacuate the families, with each house a military and emotionally charged operation in and of itself. In one case, a force of some 15 soldiers arrived, and the commander demanded to be let in so that he could remove the inhabitants. The young father refused, and finally the soldiers forced the door open. They did not enter, but continued talking to the father. He said, “If you wish to come in just to talk, then of course we’ll let you in; we always welcome guests. But if you wish to throw us out, why should we let you in? What did we do bad? We live here!”
The soldiers went in anyway, and the family greeted them with a surprise: A birthday party for their daughter Emunah. They began singing, “Happy birthday to Emunah,” leaving the soldiers in one of the few situations for which, most likely, they were not prepared.
At that tense and dramatic point, the photographers were asked to leave the home.
Nogah Cohen, three of whose children lost their legs or feet in a terrorist attack almost five years ago, said with unconcealed emotion, “I tried to begin packing, but I was simply unable to do so. It’s just hard to believe that after years of struggle, we might not be here tonight…”
Asked if she would have to be dragged out of her home, she said, “Fighting the IDF is not our way.”
As she was talking to a television reporter, her neighbor Tali Sudry passed by and, in an upheaval of emotion, interrupted, “The IDF is not as innocent as you think. Just now, soldiers came to my home and smashed a glass window, showering glass all over my one-and-a-half year old son. I had told them to come around to the main door, but there was no talking to them. They just punched through the window. They say that we’re violent – the army is the one that is violent!”
Nearby, a military policeman went up to his commander and said, “I cannot fulfill this mission,” and returned his weapon. Yassam policemen immediately and violently arrested him, while dozens of residents cheered him on, calling out, “He is a hero!” It was unclear why the arrest was carried out violently.
Jews originally bought land in what is now the area of Kfar Darom 100 years ago, but the small Jewish presence there was destroyed during the Arab riots of 1936-39. Several years later, Kibbutz Kfar Darom was established by none other than David Ben-Gurion, who set up eleven communities for the purpose of populating the Negev. The Egyptians attacked it mercilessly during the War of Independence in 1948, and though it staved off several attacks, Kfar Darom was finally abandoned in July 1949.
Eighteen years later, Gaza was liberated by Israel in the Six Day War, and in 1970, Golda Meir established an army camp and built educational institutions on the lands of Kfar Darom. Today?s community of Kfar Darom was established in 1990 following a decision by the joint Shamir-Peres Likud-Labor unity government.
Among the Kfar Darom families that the army wishes to forcibly remove today is that of Chana Bart. Chana is a young mother – her youngest is a year old – who was paralyzed from the waist down in a terror attack four years ago.
Protestors atop the synagogue call out intermittently, “Who will be the soldier who goes into the home of Chana Bart and takes her out?! Who will dare go into the Cohen home and force out the children with no legs?!”
4. Jubilant Terrorist Groups Celebrate Israeli Retreat
By Ezra HaLevi
Terrorist groups are all celebrating the implementation of the Disengagement Plan, insisting that their terror attacks brought about the Israeli retreat and will bring about additional pullbacks.
According to the Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center
at the Center for Special Studies (C.S.S) many celebrations of Israeli retreat are being organized by the Palestinian Authority, but numerous terror organizations are holding their own, separate celebrations.
According to the report, the terror groups are awarding themselves and their terrorist activities the prize for having brought about the evacuation of the Israeli settlements.
The report says that while PA chairman Mahmoud Abbas is speaking about further withdrawals through negotiations, both Hamas and the Islamic Jihad are reiterating that they have no intention of disarming, that their weapons are legal and that they intend to continue armed attacks until the total liberation of all Palestine
?We have no choice but to prepare for new rounds of the confrontation to liberate our lands and take back our Jerusalem and our rights,? Hamas chief Khaled Mashal said in an interview broadcast by Al-Aalam TV on Monday. Speaking to the London-based al-Hayat newspaper, Mashaal said the withdrawal is ?the beginning of the end for Israel.?
Last Sunday, Islamic Jihad held a victory procession in Gaza, featuring armed, masked terrorists lauded as heroic liberators of Gaza. The group said it will hold a naval military show on the Gaza beach on Wednesday, in preparation for the opening of a PA seaport in Gaza exempt from Israeli counter-terror monitoring.
Hamas also held a large celebratory rally attended by masked, armed terrorists on Tuesday in Khan Yunis.
The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) also claimed to have brought about the Jewish retreat, holding a celebration procession in the streets of Khan Yunis attended by armed terrorists waving rockets.
Despite assurances that the disengagement would not be carried out under fire, the withdrawal and expulsion has continued despite several shooting attacks and the firing of three rockets on Gush Katif and central Gaza Jewish communities in recent days.
According to the C.S.S. report, the PA has not taken any steps to put an end to the shootings.
5. Volunteers Adopt Gaza?s Jewish Refugees
By Ezra HaLevi and Hillel Fendel
As if the trauma of forced removal from their homes wasn?t painful enough for the Jewish residents of Gaza, many also found themselves without accommodations as night fell.
An organization named L’maan Achai – On Behalf of My Brothers – has been established in the past day and a half, to ensure that the new refugees receive the proper accomodations in the coming days.
One of the directors, Ya’ir Wolfe, who also serves as the Deputy Mayor of the Gush Etzion Regional Council, said today, “The government has prepared for the absorption of the refugees in a very disorganized manner. Some of the hotel arrangements were made only on Sunday, for instance – as if they didn’t know about the wave of refugees long beforehand.”
Wolfe said that most of the work is being done on a voluntary basis, except for some things that the government is dealing with: “Laundry, for instance. The families arrived in their temporary quarters with barely any clothes – how are they supposed to wash them? [One hotel charged 4 shekels per kilogram of clothing. - ed.] Or the matter of sweaters – Jerusalem is much colder at night than Gush Katif, and they don’t have the right clothing. There are 1,001 problems that have to be solved, and volunteers are helping solve them.”
“Another problem is that some of the hotels are not not properly prepared for them – there are religious families placed in irreligous hotels on the Dead Sea, and they don’t want to stay there. Some of the hotels say that they don’t want the refugees and their visitors and helpers taking over the hotel, and the like.”
?Can we even begin to imagine what they’re going through?!? said one of the volunteers. ?It is absolute madness, and nothing has been properly arranged. All the talk about proper arrangements was simply not true.?
Wolfe is one of a group of Gush Etzion rabbis and local council members who decided to take responsibility for providing support for those expelled. A headquarters has been set up at Netiv Meir Yeshiva High School in Jerusalem to identify their needs and recruit service providers and provisions. Every hotel housing the displaced residents has been assigned both a rabbi and volunteers responsible for logistical assistance.
Each Gush Etzion town was assigned a certain number of ?adopted families” staying together in a hotel. The community of N?vei Daniel, for example, has been assigned 22 families from N?vei Dekalim who were brought to Jerusalem’s Elah Regency Hotel.
In the Binyamin region, north of Jerusalem, the town of Beit El is preparing high school dormitory rooms to house 80 Jewish families from Gush Katif who who were not taken care of by the Disengagement Authority.
Shoshi Harari, one of the volunteer organizers, told Arutz-7 about all the services that are needed to provide the new refuges with some sense of normalcy. ?First of all, [many of] the hotels are only providing breakfast, so we will be preparing meals,? she said. ?We will also be taking care of Sabbath preparations, organizing child care and trying to plan night-time activities, as well as making sure every family has someone worrying about their wellbeing?.
A hotline has been set up for those wishing to volunteer their time or resources toward helping the deportees: 1-700-501300 Former Gush Katif residents who are seeking help or information about their neighbors can call 1-700-500422.
Some of the horror stories of last night include the following:
* A man from N?vei Dekalim was put on a different bus than his wife and brought to Jerusalem, only to discover that arrangements were not made for his family. He was forced to wait in a hotel lobby for the rest of his family to arrive so that they could all be sent somewhere else together.
* One older couple drove around to three hotels before finding out that they had been assigned to a fourth.
* In Sderot, families were dropped off at the wrong place, and local residents got together to pick them up and drive them to the correct place.
* One couple that arrived in a Jerusalem hotel at midnight was told that they could not bring in their beloved pet dog. The hotel staff insisted and even threatened to call the police; the man said, “I’ve already been thrown out of my house once today, so I don’t mind being thrown out again.”
* A volunteer from the community of Alon Shvut went to Jerusalem?s Reich Hotel, in the Beit HaKerem neighborhood, and discovered that she was the only person there, aside from the hotel staff, to lend assistance to the new arrivals.
6. Siege on Shirat HaYam
By Hillel Fendel
Some 1,500 troops are now surrounding the beachside community of Shirat HaYam, separated from N’vei Dekalim only by the main Gush Katif road and a small Arab community known as the Muassi.
The soldiers and police broke through the main fence, and later began to deploy all along the hundreds of meters of beach. At 1:30 PM, the soldiers knocked on the door of the first caravan and offered to help them pack – and were greeted by a woman who screamed, “You want to help?! Ruining my life and my children’s life is called helping?! How can you do this?!”
Shirat HaYam (Song of the Sea) was founded by Cabinet decision on the day of the Kfar Darom bus bombing – November 20, 2000. Two teachers were murdered in that attack, and several children were wounded, including the three Cohen children who lost legs.
Since that day, when the Cabinet allowed Jewish entry to the abandoned Eygptian houses, and up to about a year ago, 15 families moved in and formed a thriving community. They later moved into caravans. In the past several months, many more families have joined, building up the existing structures, adding two or three tent cities, and multiplying the population several times over.
Among the residents of Shirat HaYam are Women in Green co-head Nadia Matar and her family, who moved in a few months ago.
Next door to Shirat HaYam is the small community of Kfar Yam, with only a few individual families. The two communities used to be further away, but the recent addition of a tent city brought the two closer together.
The most famous residents of Kfar Yam are Aryeh Yitzchaki and his wife Datia. They helped organize the absorption of the hundreds of new arrivals, and are known for their relatively militant stance. Aryeh Yitzchaki has said in the past that he would not leave there alive, and his wife said today that they are now standing on their roof, refusing to leave under any circumstances. “If we are not shot upon, we will not shoot,” she said. “I see the Muassi Arabs celebrating our defeat, and we will not let it happen.”
It is not clear if the army will attempt to evacuate Kfar Yam together with Shirat HaYam or not.
7. Jewish Man Kills Four Arab Workers in Shomron
By Ezra HaLevi and Yehudit Halfon
A Jewish man from Binyamin opened fire upon Arab workers at the entrance to the Shilo industrial zone Wednesday afternoon, killing four.
Asher Weisgan, a 38-year-old father of two, worked as a driver transporting the Arab workers to and from work every day. They were in his car Wednesday afternoon, on their way our of the aluminum factory at which they worked, when Weisgan stopped at the guard booth to get their ID cards upon leaving Shilo’s industrial area.
Reports differ as to what happened next differ. First reports state that Weisgan grabbed the security guard’s gun after distracting him, and shot the Arabs in his vehicle. Shilo’s local security officer said, however, that Weisgan used his own weapon to carry out the attack. In any event, he then ran back into the industrial area and shot another Arab worker near the aluminum factory in which he worked.
Four of the workers died immediately, and the two injured were taken to a Jerusalem hospital in the ambulance of the community of Shilo.
The motive for the crime was not immediately clear. Weisgan, a fluent Arabic speaker, worked with the men he killed for years, had been to their homes in Palestinian Authority-controlled areas, and had even eaten lunch together with them earlier Wednesday. A resident of the town of Shvut Rachel, Weisgan is a non-observant Jew whose family says he never attended rallies or was interested in Israeli politics.
On the other hand, Israel Radio reported that on the way into his remand hearing at the Petah Tikvah Magistrates Court, Weisgan said he carried out the shooting to stop the Disengagement Plan. “I’m not sorry for what I did,” Weissgan told reporters, adding that he hopes that someone kills Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.
Police, army and local community security forces are wary of possible violent Arab reactions to the shooting. Hamas quickly promised that the killings would not go unpunished.