Gaza Strip’s beautiful people forced from hard-earned land

It is a spring day here in Israel. As I glimpse outside the window, I see the blossom of the golden orchids that dot the rolling green fields. I do not have the best view, for my friends and I are squished together in a small truck heading to Gush Katif, and I am sitting in the middle, craning my head toward the outside view.

This is my first time in Gush Katif, or the Gaza Strip, as it is more internationally known. I’ve read about this area, have seen photos of it in the newspapers, and have studied the maps that depict it on television. Nothing could prepare me for the beauty of this place.

Gush Katif is one of the greener areas of Israel. I was so used to the city scene that simply to see the nature, the flowers of the field and the grass of the meadows, gave me a much-needed break from the man-made buildings that I saw everywhere.

When we finally arrived at Gush Katif, we visited a beautiful community called Neve Dekalim where thousands of young Israeli faces, families and children, were united to show national support for this particular community that the government of Israel is giving away this month. Banners and stickers with the phrase, “The love for Gush Katif will triumph,” decorated the streets, backpacks and even people, who prayed that this land will not be given away for political concessions.

You could hear women weeping, and rabbis preaching, to be strong and not give up, that this land that families of generations settled and labored upon could in no way ever be given to those who wish to see Israel destroyed, with the Jewish people once again scattered from their biblical homeland. This land did not come easily to the Jewish people living in Gush Katif.

Many have been killed here by terrorist attacks and Kassam rockets fired by Arab terrorists. The lucky ones who survived these attacks have been handicapped for life. The Israeli Jews who live here have continued to live here with the same spirit and biblical faith that first brought their grandparents and great-grandparents to Gush Katif. The same spirit and faith that embodied the forefathers of the Jewish nation, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob when they lived in the land of Israel.

While I was in Gush Katif, I visited a family where the mother, along with being a mother to 10 children, was also an artist. She had created many paintings showing the events and scenes that were part of the establishment of the state of Israel and the beauty of the land of Israel itself. These paintings were not only painted on canvases but also on the very walls of her home.

I could not imagine how a mother’s hard-earned home and land could be simply taken away from her.

I did not know that Gush Katif, or the Gaza Strip, was such a beautiful area, nor that the schools, hospitals and homes, which made up these strong family-oriented communities, were simply looked at as pieces on a chess board, ready to be sacrificed for political gamble. Even more sadly, I did not know that it was these beautiful people who lived here with such strong determination and faith, who were going to be forced to leave a land which they loved with tears and simple faith.

You do not treat faithful citizens with cruel behavior, and expect tranquility to present itself from above.

Anav Silverman is a 2004 graduate of Calais High School and currently is attending the Temple Institute in Jerusalem.