Protestors flow into Gaza despite closure

By Rafael D. Frankel

NEVE DEKALIM, The Gaza Strip—At least 2,000 people opposed to the Gaza withdrawal, many of them teenagers, have made it into the Gush Katif settlement area despite the military closure of the Gaza Strip, Israeli police said Thursday.

This town in particular, the largest of the Jewish settlements in Gaza, was awash today in a sea of orange t-shirts, ribbons, hats, and even neck ties. Orange is the chosen color of the anti-disengagement movement.

Among the protestors was a group from New York who put their lives at home on hold in order to show their solidarity with the Jewish settlers who are just days away from being forcibly removed from their homes after living here as long as 30 years.

"I came here to identify with them, to be here in the land God gave us," said Nada Klein, 39, from Brooklyn, who left her husband and kids at home. Along with her friends, she came to Gaza with a sleeping bag, a tent, and canned food, yet still said "it would be worse if I had stayed home when my brothers and sisters are struggling."

For her friend, Linda Allen, 51, from Long Island, the message was also one of solidarity in the face of terrorism, and a belief that the disengagement will bring anything but peace.

"They are doing something that is self-destructive, that rewards terror, and will jeopardize all of us around the world," said Allen, an economics professor at Baruch CUNY. "We're all residents of Gush Katif now. In New York, watching the towers fall, in London and Madrid with the subways, all over the world. Until we stand up and fight terror together, we'll never win."

But by far the majority of the protestors who infiltrated Gaza illegally were teenagers.

They came without their parents, hitching rides and using every peaceful tactic available to them to get here. They also were the beneficiaries of apparently lax security by the Israeli Army, which is under orders not to let anyone into Gaza who is not a resident, a journalist, or essential services provider.

Uriel Cohen, 18, from Jerusalem, said he simply hitched a ride from a Neve Dekalim resident. When their car was stopped at the Kissumfim check point, the soldier checked the driver's ID card but not his own.

Most of the teenagers have not arranged places to sleep, and many came with very little money. Nevertheless, the residents here are welcoming their allies, old and young alike, with open arms.

"It's only too bad they didn't come earlier," said David Cohen, handing a piece of pizza to one of the young protestors from behind the window of the Neve Pizza shop where he has worked for the last three years. Still, Cohen said he wouldn't bring any protestors in himself "because I don't want there to be a war here."

In order to stave off any possible violence from the newcomers—a situation the Gush Katif residents all say they will not abide—Ami Sheked, the head of security for all of Gush Katif, and a 19-year resident, addressed the newcomers at sunset in the center square here.

"We don't want any fighting here, just love," he said to a round of applause.

"It won't be a war," Sheked told The Daily News later, an M-16 slung over his back, "but it won't be a walk in the park either."

Mordechai Zeller, 25, originally from California but who now lives in Israel, also infiltrated Gaza illegally Thursday with his girlfriend.
But rather than protest, they came to comfort those who will soon be leaving.

"Even if it's the right thing to do it hurts," said Zeller, who is a religious Jew. "I love my brothers and I want to be with them now."

©2005 Rafael D. Frankel and The New York Daily News