Kfar Darom
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At the point of Israel's withdrawal from Gaza, there were about sixty families, totaling about 330 people, who earned their living from the free working professions, agriculture and a central packing house for the world renowned insect-free vegetables. The village also had an elementary school, a kollel for religious students and the "Torah and Land" Institute, for research into religious laws relating to agriculture in Israel. The visitor's center contained the Garden of Commandments Museum, which illustrated commandments relating to the Land of Israel.
In August 2005 the settlement was evacuated, not without a non-violent 'last stand' by supporters on the roof of the main Synagogue. After the Israeli Army completed its retreat of Gush Katif, the synagogue was destroyed by the Palestinians.
Eviction
As the official evacuation of Jews from the Gaza Strip was winding down, Kfar Darom became a symbolic last stand by the Israeli settlers and their supporters on August 18, 2005.Synagogue Under Siege
Many settlers from Gush Katif, as well as other supporters from the rest of Israel, mostly youth, concentrated themselves in the Kfar Darom Synagogue. It was turned into a makeshift fortress, where they barricaded themselves inside, piled up furniture near the ground floor entrances and surrounded the roof with barbed wired to prolong their resistance. They had also brought a large amount of food and water, in hopes that they would indeed last long enough to need it. Inside the Synagogue, a few hundred people (mostly local settlers) locked arms and remained sitting on the floor inside. Rabbis wearing reflective vests were on hand in order to make sure that no violence ensued, not unlike unofficial referees. The settlement supporters from elsewhere were mostly located on the roof, perhaps numbering up to 300. The Israeli Army eventually broke through the barricaded front door, and set to work of dragging each person out from the lower floor individually. It was important for the people inside to show that they would not be removed willingly, though no physical violence was used. An agreement was made that no Israeli Police would enter the synagogue and that the work would be carried out by soldiers.After the bottom floor was secured, the police set to work on reaching the roof. The stairs had been ruled out since oil had been poured and the door to the roof was blocked with sand bags. The barricaders succeed in prolonging the police siege in that they forced them to think of alternate ways of reaching the roof. At approximately 6:30 p.m. local time as the sun was setting, the tactical decision was made that no Jews would be allowed to remain overnight.
Storming of the Synagogue
With the protesters still under the assumption that they would be staying the night, the Police took advantage and began to move in heavy equipment. A water cannon located on site and began spraying the people on the roof with water and blue soap. One man attempted to shut down one of the water cannons, but was immediately hauled away. The front tires of the truck were slashed.
The blue soap was symbolic in that blue was the color representing the pull out of Gaza, while Orange was the color of the movement to remain in the settlements. The leader of this resistance (according to the Israeli police), Moshe Leshem, was holding up an Israeli Flag, and he was blasted directly with the blue soap, along with his flag. For a moment it looked as though it would slip through his fingers, but he held on and symbolically waved the now blue flag to rally the protesters further.
The soldiers began closing in on the area, bringing ladders and other equipment, such as wire cutters to begin to get on top of the roof. Cranes were moved into the site in order to lift 40 ft containers turned into makeshift troop carriers, and land them on the roof. When the soldiers and police got close enough, they aimed fire extinguishers at the crowd and the protesters on the roof began to throw sand at the troops to no avail, as they were all wearing facemasks. When they brought the ladders up close, and began to cut into the barbed wire, they started dumping oil and gasoline, as well as buckets of sand and feathers. The protesters also used long wooden poles to keep the ladders from reaching the roof, and managed to hold them at bay.
As an effort to finally dock the ladders with the roof, the police rolled in a heavy water cannon. It first fired at the sign that had stood there, puncturing it and knocking it over. They then fired at the protesters, forcing them back from the edge. The protesters then desperately rushed back to the wall, and pushed the ladder back again. The Police fired again at the settlers, this time allowing the ladders to dock with the synagogue. The protesters then began to dump buckets of the very blue water and foam that was shot at them onto the ascending police.
One policeman made it up to the roof after several minutes of effort, and almost was almost pushed over a ledge onto the barbed wire directly below but was pushed back with a quick spurt of the water cannons below. Once police reached the top, the struggle had ended, literally. The protesters stopped their resistance and were peacefully removed from the roof and arrested. Moshe Leshem was the last to be removed, and at nightfall he, and the soldiers on the roof, made one last prayer at the synagogue, and left for the very last time. 250 protesters were arrested and taken to the Dekel prison. They were released after a week.
Reactions
The reactions were mixed to this incident, with some feeling that the acts were heroic, and compared it to the American Battle of the Alamo while the Israeli Government, backed up by the media, denounced these protesters as criminals, and said they defiled the synagogue by using it as a fortress for a violent protest. Little mention was made of the fact that the police and soldiers themselves proceeded with hostilities by breaking down the door of the synagogue and spaying paint onto protesters.This incident was the largest show of force by anti-withdrawal supporters during the entire pull out from Gush Katif and Northern Samaria. All evacuations after this went much more smoothly.
References
[Darom Info] [Kfar Darom]External links
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