At 8:30 a.m., a moving truck pulled up outside the Mahluf family home in the northern West Bank settlement of Homesh.
Moti and Shuli, together with their five children, left the settlement in which they have lived for the last 16 years.
“We understood there was nothing that could be done, and the disengagement would take place. If it is decided not to evacuate Homesh, we’ll happily return here,” Moti said.
The couple first came to Homesh “because of the quality of life,” they say, and not for ideological reasons. They lived in a spacey family home where their five children were born: 15 year-old Talia, Aviram,13, twins Yarden and Daniel, who are seven, and 5-year-old Noi.
Moti has worked in the regional council for the last 14 years, where he also served in the settlement’s secretariat, and Shuli worked a number of jobs, due to the difficulties in finding employment in the area.
“Life here was good,” she told Ynet. “From the beginning we fell in love with this place and our friends here. But when the last intifada began, many left, until only 17 families remained. Our kids fit in well here, but because so many left, they had very few friends in the end.”
When the Mahluf family was told that their settlement was on the list of communities slated for evacuation as part of the disengagement plan, they were incredulous.
'I think we will cry'
“At the beginning we didn’t believe this could happen – but then we understood that this has begun, and that there was no choice, that we would have to leave. We accepted this because there was no option,” Moti said.
“Ironically, after years, former residents returned to abandoned houses after it was announced that the settlement would be cleared. Today, all the homes are populated, and the settlement is blossoming. There are now 100 families here. Some came specifically because they oppose the pullout, and they plan on fortressing themselves here; they are storing food.”
The couple sat with their children and explained to them that they were moving home because there was no choice.
“They are aware of the whole disengagement issue, and we make sure to explain it to them. It was difficult for them, and we are trying to involve them in choosing the temporary home we will be renting, until we enter our new permanent home,” said Moti.
He said that the family would “prefer to stay in Homesh, but because there’s no choice we will have to leave. If tomorrow, or in the future, they decide that Homesh is not going to be cleared, we'll come back.”
“But I don’t believe the decision will be overturned. We are the first family in Homesh to leave, and I think that in coming days, other families, ones who have been here longer than us, will also begin to pack up and leave."
"You ask whether there will be tears because of our leaving? Yes, I think we will cry,” he said.