Photo Blog: Gush Katif Protests, Where was everybody?

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I don't understand what happened! I joined my uncle and a small group of about 30 cars, from Har Nof, that set out for Gush Katif on Monday night. We stopped at a rest stop as we approached the area and hit road blocks.


There we so many people there! There was praying and singing and dancing and everyone was looking at maps and discussing how to take back road and dirt roads to evade the police road blocks. Everyone was pumped!



The plan was to have the small groups all meet up in four location: Ashkelon, Netivot, Sderot and Ofakim. Our group was directed towards Ofakim. I'm telling you - there were so many people there! They had a massive rally and discussed the plans. Spirits were high. We were going to stop this evil thing!


But that's when I started feeling something was amiss. The plan was for us to drive several kilometers then park the car and walk 10 kilometers till we reached an oasis area. There we were going to camp out for the whole Tuesday and head down another 7 kilometers for Gush Katif along will thousands of others as the deadline for the voluntary expulsion expired. The idea was if we simply block all the roads in and out the expulsion can’t happen. At the same time the limited resources involved in the disengagement would have to be devoted to us and with the government coalition as shaky as it is, any delay could ultimately be a fatal blow to the Sharon government and to disengagement forever.


But half the group - or even more than half the group objected to the plan. Camp there for a day?! “We don’t have food, we don’t have water!” Biblical history repeats itself. But I’m being very rough and unfair. They did make a good rational argument. The sun is hot and without adequate amounts of water – the sun would be dangerous – even fatal. It made more sense to go home and return the next night if that was we when they needed us to converge on Gush Katif. The argument to proceed was - how do you even know you will be able to reach Ofakim. Today you are here. Why go backwards? Most of the “Har Nof” group went back, but nine cars proceeded as planed.


The journey down proved to be a challenge. We drove on all sorts of dirt roads in pitch black darkness in the dead of the night. We drove though some very beautiful villages with large houses that would easily blend in with neighborhoods in Long Island, New York. Then we passed this lovely little Kibbutz - I think it was called Patish. And there were families stitting outside and taking pictures. We spoke to a little girl who was all excited and said they never have seen so much traffic pass through and that cars had been streaming through all night. Indeed as we continued we would spot other groups of cars doing the same thing we were and some groups were even as large as 50-60 cars.




We drove and drove and came to a road that leads directly into an Army Tent City (called Reim I think?). Well the army was not about to let us drive that way, although that’s the direction the plan called for us to head towards. Two army vehicles blocked the road. We turned left. The army vehicles followed us probably to make sure we left the area.


So we stopped to regroup and decide on a new plan. Some of the teenagers in the group went to chat with the soldiers. One of the soldiers was really friendly and gave us all sorts of tips. He even pointed to a map, “take this road here, make a left here – don’t go that other way because they will arrest you, but you could probably get close if you go this way instead.” Ect.


The next leg of the journey, involved more dirt road, and driving off dirt road with headlights shut off at 2 miles an hour so as not to be seen or heard. I wasn’t about to take all too many flash pictures at that point. Not a good idea if you are trying to hide from the police and army. At one point we realized we couldn’t drive any further and decided all the drivers would drive the cars back and the rest of the group would proceed on foot.


We hiked through a farm – I’m fairly certain we were walking on fertilizer at one point. And then something interesting happened. Instead of about 30 of us from “Har Nof” there were about 300 people walking in the same direction. We had merged with two other groups headed the same way – including a large group from Shilo.




The terrain changed from flat farmland to very ridged with deep valleys and steep hills. We proceed as the sun began to rise.


The sun was not our friend. We were supposed to reach the oasis before sunrise. But we were a few hours behind schedule. We would have to contend with the heat.


We met another protester who told us his group headed over the mountain the same way we were headed and met a unit of army troops that promptly arrested them. He escaped to warn us. We took a detour to the right.


There were a few soldiers there as well and they spotted us. We headed, very quickly to the left of our original route instead. This meant lots of extra walking as the sun started heating up.


But then something truly miraculous happened. It got cloudy! There were even some really thick black clouds. And they blocked out the sun for another four hours until we reached a shady area safely. Someone said it never gets cloudy down there in the summer.


We had to cross over the main road into Gaza. A TV News camera crew spotted us and started filming. . .


A police officer also spotted us. “Police, Police, Halt!” he called out. But there was one of him and 300 of us. We proceed with much haste.


I didn’t take a picture of it because I didn’t want to get them in trouble, but a few soldiers ran after us... not to arrest us but the offer encouragement. They even showed some of the younger kids their weapons.



Ahh, nothing like davening Shacharit out in the open field.


We reached a shady area and made camp – and coffee.


And rested... finally!


This is what the sun did to sunflowers!


Bad news. We found out from Yesha central command that we were the ONLY group to get so close to Gush Katif. Everybody else, 5000 people who attempted that first night, were either turned around and sent home or arrested. We had to decide what we could do as we could not stick to the original plan without thousands more with us.


Half the group decides that afternoon to go and block the Kissufim crossing, the main road in and out of Gaza, and get arrested. (The other half would do the same after nightfall.)


Mogen Dovid Adom arrives and supplies us with plenty of water (remember those that complained about water earlier?)


Some of the locals also visit us and bring supplies and words of encouragement.


As sunset approaches another group meets up with us.


He brought a keyboard and played a song he wrote about the whole current situation – and how lots of ahavat yisrael is needed.


Sing Along!


We were off to block the Kissufim Crossing.


Our group wasn’t all that large but it managed to block to road for almost an hour and a half. I slipped away to take some pictures (and video clips.) The police were very gentle and basically a police van pulled up and if you wanted to get arrested you got on and if not you walked away.


Right after our group, another group, apparently very large blocked the other side of the road. I saw loads of troops and police running down the road and then no less than 12 egged busses used to arrest all the protesters.


You can’t tell from the picture but the protesters were all singing and dancing as the bus passed by. They are happy that at least they did everything they could to prevent this evil plan from taking place.

They were there.

The question I have is where was everybody else?


12/27/05 Update: For links to more postings from this photo series click here.