'Nobody has explained to us yet why this is being done.' Hendel Photo: Tzvika Tishler
Security forces enter Ganei Tal Photo: Channel 10
MK wants to be last to leave Gaza
Right-wing Knesset Member Zvi Hendel greets soldiers with plates of watermelon in settlement of Ganei Tal , says, ‘Despite the things that have been written about us in the press, we made sure over the last few months to keep things calm, to ensure an easy withdrawal’
Two high ranking Air Force officers entered National Union Party Knesset Member Zvi Hendel’s home Wednesday morning in Ganei Tal to
give him his evacuation orders.
Hendel waited for the officers in his home with his family, receiving them with plates of watermelon as he tried to conduct a calm conversation with them in his living room.
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“You’ve been forced to do the dirty work,” Hendel told the soldiers. “Nobody has explained to us yet why this is being done. If it would help at all I would leave, but there is nothing useful about all this. Nobody has been able to intelligently explain to me what this will give our country. The army has turned in to a bunch of ‘yes men’ without examining what’s going on at all.”
Hendel’s wife joined in, saying that no one has come to speak to the family, and that they haven’t signed anything.
“Tell me—where am I supposed to be going from here? What’s going to happen to all of my belongings?” she asked with tears in her eyes.
During the discussion Hendel’s children began to cry in front of the officers.
“Look at that tree in the picture, look how small it is,” Hendel’s daughter said.
“I took that picture many years ago. I tried to take a picture of that tree again recently, but it was too large to fit in the frame. We’ve lived here for 28 years; do you understand what you are destroying here?”
Hendel insisted on giving the soldiers plates of watermelon that he had prepared ahead of time.
“Despite the things that have been written about us in the press, about what’s supposedly going to happen during the pullout, we made sure in the last few months to keep things calm and ensure that the pullout would not be hard. I am your brother. We will do everything we can to make sure that this goes off quietly, but I would like to be the last Jew to leave Gush Katif. I ask you to let me have this last wish. It has been my life’s work.”
The officers said they would find out if it’s possible, while Hendel added that it is “because of our responsible actions, we are doing everything we can to prevent a tear in the fabric of our society. You aren’t to blame.”
Tears and screams
There have been reports in recent weeks that the families of Ganei Tal will move to Kibbutz Hafetz Haim and then from there to cara-villas (mobile homes) in Yad Binyamin. But Hendel’s wife refused to consider it.
“I apologize in the name of the country for what has happened to you… we’ve tried to make it easier, I am sorry,” Hendel finally said. He shook hands with the officers and then hugged them.
The atmosphere was tense as hundreds of soldiers streamed into Ganei Tal. Despite the fact that the residents were in their homes, the soldiers were met with crying and screams that they should refuse orders to carry out the disengagement and leave the place.
One young woman walked around with a piece of a mortar shell and screamed at the soldiers: “6,000 of these fell on us. Is this what you joined the army for? This is the great IDF? You didn’t need to come out in such force; we knew you would succeed at your mission.”
Several residents were seen packing up their belongings. Some of the houses had writing scrawled on the outside condemning Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and the evacuation—one house even had a teddy bear hanging with a noose around its neck.
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