On This Day in Jewish History: August 17th, 2005

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#onthisday fifteen years ago on August 17th 2005, the evacuation and removal of Israeli citizens from Gaza began after the unilateral disengagement plan that would give the Palestinians full control of the territory.

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Prime Minister Ariel Sharon approved the plan with intentions of improving Israel’s security and international status.

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Over 9,000 Israelis living in 21 settlements in Gaza were evicted.

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Only half of them voluntarily left with the remainder being forced out of their homes, some even carried by Israeli soldiers.

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Knowing that this would be emotionally difficult for the soldiers, the IDF sent older, officer-level soldiers on the mission. The evacuation of Gazan-Israeli settlements was completed on August 22nd, all homes destroyed and farms abandoned.

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The government compensation was lower than the market value on the homes and farms of the Israelis. This meant that those who were evicted could not necessarily afford to just buy a new home or even rent one inside Israel.

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In June 2007, Hamas forcefully took over Gaza from the Palestinian Authority – murdering them or exiling them to Ramallah. Along with Hamas, groups like Iranian-funded Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) also cropped up on the strip.

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In 13 years, the Gaza Strip has become a hot bed of terror including 3 full-scale wars against Israel. A dictatorship has taken over the strip – in the form of thousands of indiscriminate rockets shot at civilians, complete control of the media and “state funds”, terror tunnels dug under Israeli homes, ecological destruction of Southern Israel using pyro-terrorism of balloon-attached IEDs/Molotov cocktails, unabashed use of Palestinian lives as human shields, and a twisted zero-sum reality.

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Primarily, those living in Southern Israel, who generally opposed the disengagement from the start (+ around half of Israeli pop.), have paid the highest price for the 2005 decision.

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Text Source: https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/gaza-disengagement-plan

https://www.npr.org/series/4797062/israel-s-withdrawal-from-gaza

Image Source: IMAGEN POR JIM HOLLANDER/EPA

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