Settlers' painful memories of withdrawal

By Raffi Berg
BBC News Online

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's plan to disengage from the Gaza Strip, and parts of the West Bank, assumes that the 20 Jewish settlements in the strip will be evacuated.

This means anxious times for the Jewish settlers in Gaza.

For some of them Israel's planned pull-back from Gaza evokes bitter memories of the dismantling of the settlement of Yamit in the Sinai more than 20 years ago, and means being forcibly evicted from their homes for a second time.

A hardcore of settlers refused to leave Yamit

Mr Sharon's decision to uproot the settlers has much of the Israeli right in a state of apoplexy. Though the settlements are viewed as illegal by most of the international community, Mr Sharon has been one of the most prominent champions of settlement building.

The settlers who came there were ideological, they were pioneers like the first people who settled in Israel Avi Farhan, Yamit founder

If and when the time comes, the Israeli Army will move against Israel's own citizens. Some of the settlers have served in the army's ranks and the army was originally sent into Gaza to protect their communities.

Such an eventuality would not be without precedent, though. Twenty-two years ago, in mid-April 1982, bulldozers rumbled into north-east Sinai to tear down Jewish homes in a town called Yamit in dramatic scenes played out on televisions across Israel.

Biblical land

Avi Farhan was 21 years old when Israel captured Gaza and the Sinai in the 1967 war.

He had fought in the Egyptian peninsula and continued to serve there in the years that followed.

Then, in 1975, with the backing of an Israeli government keen to establish settlements in the Sinai as buffers between the Egyptian forces and southern Israel, Avi founded Yamit.

For the son of Jewish refugees from Libya, establishing a home in the Sinai was a way of reconnecting with Jewish history.

"Sinai gave me a lot of memories because it was the place where the people of Israel came together as a nation in the bible," he told BBC News Online.

Over the next seven years, while other Jewish settlements sprang up nearby, Yamit grew in size to become the biggest Jewish town in the Sinai.

"The settlers who came there were ideological, they were pioneers like the first people who settled in Israel," said Avi.

They came from all over Israel - from other settlements, from kibbutzim, from cities, and from the army - secular and religious people, seeking adventure and a challenge.

Peace deal 'shock'

Life flourished in Yamit as more than 2,000 families set up home there.

Israel returned the Sinai in return for peace with Egypt

They established farming and fishing communities and turned it into a modern, thriving Mediterranean town.

"Even up to today, Yamit was the most beautiful place you could imagine," Avi recalled.

Then, in 1979, as part of the Camp David peace deal, Israel agreed to return the Sinai to Egypt.

"We were shocked, we were depressed, we couldn't believe it," said Avi.

He wrote to Egyptian President Anwar Sadat, Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin and US President Jimmy Carter begging them to let Yamit stay, but to no avail.

Ironically, the person who convinced Mr Begin that Yamit would have to go was the then Israeli Defence Minister, Ariel Sharon.

Fierce resistance

Faced with the prospect of being forced out, many of Yamit's residents left, induced by compensation from the government (reportedly from $100,000 to $500,000).

Bulldozers reduced Yamit to a pile of rubble

Others, however, would not accept the town's removal at any price and they prepared for confrontation.

The settlers who dug in at Yamit were backed by fellow ideologues from the Gush Emunim (Bloc of the Faithful) settlement movement in the West Bank, many of whom flocked to Yamit to help defend the town.

In the end, about 200 defiant settlers - most not from Yamit - remained.

When the order finally came for the military to act, many of the settlers barricaded themselves inside their properties, while others climbed onto their roofs as soldiers smashed down their doors.

Television pictures showed shocking scenes of Israeli troops dragging Jewish men and women, kicking and screaming, from their homes.

Troops sprayed protesters with high-powered jets of foam as bulldozers smashed down walls and tore up the land.

Despite mounting a fierce resistance, the settlers were no match for the army's overwhelming might, and within days the rebellion was quashed and the town destroyed.

Lasting legacy

Avi Farhan, the first settler in Yamit, was also the last to go, staging a protest walk from the ruins of his home to Jerusalem.

He said the events at Yamit had a devastating impact.

The problem is the Arabs see the whole of Israel as the biggest settlement of all Avi Farhan

"A lot of the settlers died afterwards from unnatural causes. Many got divorced, left Israel, committed suicide and suffered severe psychological problems."

Like many of his former townspeople, Avi finally resettled in the Gaza Strip, and founded a new settlement, Elei Sinai (literally "towards Sinai"), intended as a permanent, living memorial to Yamit.

Now, two decades on, Ariel Sharon is threatening to uproot the settlers once again.

But Avi Farhan says he is not worried.

"I don't think they will evacuate Gaza. If they do, it will be seen as a defeat in the face of terrorism, just like Israel's withdrawal from Lebanon.

"Jews who think they can make peace with the Arabs by giving up land think they are smart but they are sleeping.

"The problem is the Arabs see the whole of Israel as the biggest settlement of all."