Dear Friends,

Our Women in Green shopping trip to Yad Binyamin, Ein Tsurim and Nitsan was a huge success. Tens and tens  of supporters came from Jerusalem, Bet Shemesh, Efrat-Gush Etzion and Gush Dan and shopped in the stores owned by our friends who had been expelled from Gush Katif. For many of us who personally know many of the expellees, like Anita Tucker and Rachel Saperstein, it was more than a shopping trip. It was a very emotional reunion with friends we love.

Below please find Gemma Blech’s account of our trip and a link to the wonderful pictures she took, giving you a bit of a feeling of the special experience we had. At the end of the day many of the Gush katif expellees called us to thank us and we promised them that this will not be a one-time effort but rather the beginning of many more trips please G-d.

The real hero of the day was our incredible tour guide Avery Harris, who told us all the hair-raising stories about the suffering our friends from Gush Katif undergo on a daily basis because of the government’s decrees preventing them from finding permanent housing. Avery has been working on a voluntary basis helping the expellees since the expulsion.

The light in all this darkness is the unbelievable project JOBKATIF initiated by Rabbi Tsvi Rimon from Alon Shvut who realized, days after the expulsion, that the most urgent need is to find the Gush Katif expellees new jobs. Thanks to JOBKATIF many of the expellees are now finding work and little by little are able to raise their heads again. JOBKATIF needs lots of support and thus at the end of the article we give you the link to their website and urge you to read more about them.

This special trip not only strengthened the expellees; it also strengthened our determination at Women in Green to do all we can to prevent more expulsions and destructions.

With Love for Israel,
Ruth and Nadia Matar

The link to JobKatif’s website: http://www.jobkatif.org.il/index_e.php
Link to Rachel Saperstein’s Orange Gallery: http://www.theorangegallerygk.com/site/index.asp?depart_id=38086&lat=e

The barrage of rockets on Sderot and the South of Israel are a direct result of the expulsion of the 22 thriving communities of Gush Katif, [Gaza]. The once blossoming desert has become a HAMAS stronghold and a barren land which now grows, we are told, almost nothing. The Jews made the desert blossom as a rose and their eviction and the destruction has brought catastrophe on the rest of Israel. Thankfully, there are many trying to support Sderot in these days, but the refugees from Gush Katif have been lost and abandoned by the government and by most Israelis.

These prosperous, middle class families, were evicted from their homes and dropped first into cramped hotel rooms and then into ‘temporary caravans’ in the middle of mud fields. The so-called ‘beurocratic’ game to resettle these people is no more than a Catch 22 demonic nightmare. The caravans are of course FAR too small for what were once large, flourishing families and so most have to keep their containers ­ into which all their worldly goods were stuffed on deportation ­ as a shed next to the house. The walls of the caravans are paper thin, an ice box in the winter and an oven in the summer. Many try and retain their dignity with attempts at gardens ­ but the mud, lack of paving, lack of drains initially, etc., has made living an on going hell.

BUT, far worse than even that is the loss of jobs, income, livelihood, and any self respect. JOBKATIF was set up to help people start new businesses, new shops, new lives and it was Avery Harris of JOBKATIF who took us round the three ‘towns’ [Yad Binyamin, Ein Tsurim and Nizan] to encourage our ex-Gush Katif friends there by SHOPPING!!! We went in one [packed] bus from Jerusalem and assorted others joined us from all over the country.

So now I am home with everything from bananas to weddings presents; face cream to a much needed new washing up bowl; earrings and onions and not forgetting a whole restocking of stationary and office supplies! The folks there were thrilled to see us. Anita Tucker, famous celery grower, once of Netzer Hazani, told us of their endless struggles and Rachel Saperstein [thrown out of Neve Dekalim], opened up the Orange Gallery for us and so introduced us to numerous artists from Gush Katif. And there were [excellent] pizzas, coffee, ice creams and more along the way!

I could, of course, write a whole lot more ­ but see the website above and let us do all we can to support these folk in the future.

=============================================
Women For Israel’s Tomorrow  (Women in Green)
POB 7352, Jerusalem 91072, Israel
Tel: 972-2-624-9887 Fax: 972-2-624-5380
mailto:wfit2@womeningreen.org
http://www.womeningreen.org

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