GUSH KATIF - The Secret of Faith

June 2005 / Sivan 5765

Every trip to Gush Katif makes one more attached to the place. Every visit brings out a new discovery - an unforgettable site or person. (I encourage everyone to visit Gush Katif, at least once, See it and understand it personally.) Many of our readers are taking regular trips to Gush Katif nowadays - drawn to the area like someone pulled by a cosmic magnet - to something intangible beyond the blue skies, the vanilla sand, and the prism of colored flowers and vegetables.

In my past few trips, I have searched for the secrets of Gush Katif. What makes its people and its communities so unforgettable and dear?

The secret of the people of Gush Katif is: "They truly believe!"

Only 10% of the residents of Gush Katif are farmers, but their influence on the region is extensive. It is said that there is no farmer who does not believe in G-d's miracles. Well, faith is spread thickly in Gush Katif among the families there. Residents of all of the 23 communities of the Gaza Regional Coast see as much awe in the miracles of crops growing in the sand, as they do in the miracles of raining rockets that B"H mostly miss their target.

Messages of Faith

Welcome to Gush Katif. Not much traffic on a regular day, and B"H, there are still regular days there. The sun is shining (of course). The palm trees are "high as an elephant's eye" (actually they're higher). And the first things we notice are the messages flying throughout the community. No derogatory posters splattered there, Gush Katif is filled with brachot - blessings for the Jewish people.

"Ki lo yitosh H' amo, vnachalato lo yaazov." (For H-Shem will not forsake his nation, and His portion he will not abandon.)

"Ki et kol ha'aretz asher atah ro'eh, lecha etnena ulzarecha ad olam." (The entire land that you see, to you I will give it and to your descendants forever.)

"Lecha eten et ha’aretz hazot." (To you I will give this land.)

"Bechol dor vador, omdim aleinu lechaluteinu, v'Hakadosh Baruch Hu matzilainu miyadam." (In each and every generation there are those who stand against us to eliminate us, and Hakodosh Baruch Hu saves us from their hold.)

While some teenagers may spray paint graffiti in tunnels and on the sides of buildings, the youth of Gush Katif have expressed themselves on sheets hanging from pillar to post. "Ain li eretz acheret." (I have no other land.) "Be'achdut nenatzayach." (In unity, we will triumph.)

Faith Farming

We pull into Netzer Chazani. Except for Kfar Darom, it is the area's oldest town (29 years and counting), except for Kfar Darom, and we find the home of Stuart and Anita Tucker, a celery farmer who has become personal friends with half the population of Israel. One of Gush Katif's busiest residents, Anita spends so much time talking to groups or reporters, I am amazed that she can still tend her eight dunams of hothouses, producing 160,000 heads of celery per season.

Netzer Chazani grows mostly organic vegetables - peppers, eggplants, cucumbers, herbs of every kind, and tomatoes. 98% of the organic vegetables and herbs go to Europe at the height of season.

On Stuart and Anita's front door is a name plate made by their granddaughter, "Here living in fun are the Tuckers!" True. No matter what question is asked or what topic is discussed, a smile never leaves Anita's face. Even when talking about the GKers who supposedly have signed with SELA ("The Disengagement Authority"), she says, "Ya gotta love 'em. They're our people."

A cup of coffee and off to the greenhouses. The first is a forest of bushy celery stalks. Anita pulls one out of its sandy bed, and shares it with us. Yum, sweet and juicy. In another hothouse, small green leaves peak out of a football field of pots. These celery plants will be ready in mid-August. Mid-August, I gulp. Anita smiles confidently, because she is sure, BE"H, that she will harvest her crop. "I've already put down money for shtilim (seedlings) for four months from now."

All the farmers of Gush Katif want to continue planting and harvesting. Fresh Gush Katif lettuces and vegetables represent 90% of the local market in Israel for bug-free products. Of Israel's total sales abroad, Gush Katif exports 65% of the geraniums and 65% of the hothouse organic vegetables: tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, bell peppers and cucumbers. Gush Katif exports 60% of the fresh chives that go to Europe. The total sum of exports from the greenhouses of Gush Katif comes to almost $100,000,000

The growers believe in the future of Am Yisrael in Gush Katif, and they want to show their faith by preparing for the next season of crops.

To do so, they must invest approximately 5000 NIS for each dunam of the 4500 dunams of hot-houses in Katif (a total of 22,500,000 NIS), but the bank will no longer give the farmers credit.

Enter the Jewish people. "I believe therefore I will give." The "Sowing in Faith" Fund is helping the farmers continue - giving them loans for the new season. According to Rav Ya'acov Ariel, Rav Motti Elon, Rav Hanan Porat, Mr. Uri Zvi Binun, Adv. Dr. Haim Misgav, "Once, G-d willing, our salvation has come to pass, the farmers will repay the loan and the lenders will be repaid. If, G-d forbid, the expulsion and destruction do indeed take place, the loan will become a grant." The loan is considered Maaser money.

Supporters from through-out the country, even the world, are donating 1000 NIS to back the farmers, and to show their emunah, and their hope that the crops and the communities of Gush Katif will continue to grow next year and forever after. Checks can be made out to "Keren Katif", and mailed to Benaya Lifshitz, Yeshivat Hesder Neve Dekalim, POB 229 DN Hof Aza 79779.

Thus far, 5 million NIS has poured in from across the globe, including an $18 donation from Jonathan Pollard.

Faith Factories

Next stop, a pepper plantation - 35 dunams of organic peppers owned by Itzik Cohen. Yellow and blue plastic sheets line the walls of the hothouse - each color attracting different insects and keeping them away from the plants. Most greenhouses are totally computerized and controlled for their temperature and humidity.

In the middle of the greenhouses is a brand new packing house. Farmer Itzik Cohen built the factory to pack his peppers and the vegetables of Netzer Chazani's other farmers.

Anita tells us, "It's called a Faith Packing House because it was built after the compensation deadline [the date after which no new construction would be compensated]. He wanted to show his faith, so he put his money where his belief was and built the plant."

Inside, boxes des-tined for Europe line the walls. The peppers drop onto a conveyor belt. They're washed, dried, shined and then shined again, as they're automatically sorted. Jews, Arabs and Nepalese work together as the red peppers jiggle by.

Anita explains, "Two hours after the vegetables are picked, they are already on the truck to Ashdod. Then off to Marseilles and the rest of Europe."

Faith Food

The packing house is also the location for another display of faith. Blessed with bountiful crops, the growers are generous with their produce. At 3 PM every day, baskets next to the packing house are brimming with vegetables from different hothouses. Then gemachim come by to collect food for the poor.

Voices had the opportunity to speak with one very special food collector. Neve Dekalim bus driver Yarimi recalled that 13 years ago, while he was driving his route, he realized that the blessing of the produce in the hothouses of Gush Katif could be shared with others, and he began visiting the farmers to ask them for some of their produce. Yarimi said, "I began very small, and now I bring food to 250 needy families in and around Gush Katif." After he finishes his Egged route, he begins another route, from farmer to farmer. Yarimi told Voices, "Everyone wants to help. Everyone helps one another. They are all tzadikim."

Yarimi has also added to his care package, which now includes dry goods and milk. Then together with yeshiva students and family members, he makes packages and delivers them to the needy.

Anita notes that Yarimi was the first "chesed farmer" - planting the idea of helping the poor through the bounty of Gush Katif, initiating and raising the level of chesed and tzedakah there. Moreover, he has blazed the way for many others. Now food collectors come to Gush Katif for food for development towns like Netivot and Sderot, and yeshivot and kollelim all the way up to Bnei Brak.

Faith Edifices

While we might expect Gush Katif residents to be saving their money now, residents of Netzer Chazani have been investing in their town, despite the "Disengagement" threats. Anita pointed out the community's new Moadon (daycare center and clubhouse). The funding for the building had stopped right after "Disengagement" was announced, and the town was left with an unusable skeleton. Since the government wouldn't participate, and their children still needed a Moadon, the families of Netzer Chazani reached into their own pockets and completed the building.

Faith Funds and Gemachim

While visiting Netzer Chazani, we had the opportunity to meet Yoni Cohen of the Shivut Sinai Gemach.

Yoni's in a rush, but he quickly notes that there are a tremendous amount of gemachim in Gush Katif - loans, food, building tools, gasoline, etc. But the most unique one is the crib gemach, which lends out small newborn cribs

The crib gemach recently purchased 15 new mini-cribs to add to their supply, and bli ayin hara, there are so many new babies that have been born in Gush Katif recently, the gemach is totally out of cribs.

Faith and Learning

The more Torah, the more protection, says our sages. So, area residents were encouraged when Yeshivat HaKotel decided to join the hesder yeshivot, yeshiva gevoha and mechinot already in the area, by opening a new branch, "Netzach (Netzer Chazani) Yerushalayim." The boys learn every day in Netzer Chazani's main shul, and live in a renewed neighborhood near their rabbis, who have come down to Gush Katif with their families.

Maoz HaYam (formerly the Palm Beach Hotel) also has a new Torah presence. Many young kollel families have moved in. Additionally, yeshivot and Talmudei Torah from all over the country are taking turns coming down to Maoz HaYam to learn in the hotel's old dining room, overlooking the ocean.

Sitting around their rav, the boys chant the pasukim (verses) in the Torah that they are studying. Their voices blend with the song of the sea.

Faith and Room for All

Outside Netzer Chazani's green-houses, a street of housing formerly occupied by the Army stood empty. Used by the town's Thai workers for a while, the small houses were a total disaster. When Netzer Chazani's next generation wanted to remain in the community, the cottages were renovated as needed.

Now that hundreds of families hope to move down to Gush Katif to help strengthen the area, the few Army cottages still unoccupied are being refurbished by volunteers. Already MK Effy Eitam and his family have moved in, as have other families from all over Israel, including a Netzer Chazani second generation couple who are expecting a baby in August, beshaah tova.

Despite the sand that keeps sneaking into their homes and the no-frills accommodations, the new residents are upbeat. Each has received beautiful geraniums upon their arrival. Some have landscaped their new homes with a combination of Gush Katif flowers and seashells.

One new family from Binyamin invites us in to see its renovations. The front room includes a working kitchen and living room/dining room. Two bedrooms and a bathroom are in the back. A computer sits on a tiny desk along one wall of the children's room, and mattresses are stacked up along the other. The walls of the room are decorated with good bye cards from their old classmates, and pictures from their old home.

The Mom says, "Here all the children are in one room. They love it. Kef lahem!” (What fun!) While her husband still travels back to his job, when he is in Gush Katif, he gives a shiur every morning in the greenhouses.

The newcomer tells us, "We have to write a thank you letter to Prime Minister Sharon that we're here. The lovely people we've met. The warm community. We never would have discovered it, had it not been for this terrible edict.

More Room for All

Later in the day, we get a look at a different kind of refurbished housing. Leaving Anita and Netzer Chazani, we drive off the main road and aim toward the high flying orange flag - Shirat Yam - on the way to Kfar Yam, the headquarters of Minhelat Kela, the organization that is "engaging" in Gush Katif - renovating every available flat, cottage and caravan possible.

Shirat HaYam was established in 1983 on a former Egyptian recreation village. Fifteen families currently live in caravan after caravan on the beach, surrounded by rock gardens, flags and even grass growing in the sand. We pass decrepit bungalows (long-ago summer homes for Egyptian Army officers) and others under repair with sheet rock and tiling piled up outside - work of Minhelet Kela. Each bungalow will house two families with a common kitchen and bathroom.

Nadia Matar, now a resident of Kfar Yam, explains that the area currently under renovation is within the municipal boundaries of Neve Dekalim.

Datia Yitzchaki, a driving force of Minhelet Kela, has been living in Kfar Yam since 2001 after the bus bombing in Kfar Darom. The Yitzchaki, Matar and Finklestein (formerly of Tekoa) families live in caravan homes on a cliff above the ocean. In the backyard, a couch is perched to give visitors the perfect view of the waves breaking upon the shore. In the front yard, a lawn mower laughingly stands in the sand. And on the side of another caravan, a basketball court is under construction.

Anita Finkelstein is hanging out the laundry. The wind is so strong, it's incredible that the shirts and socks don't fly away. Anita F. says, "Everything dries so quickly here. By the time I hang it up, it's time to take it down again."

She echoes the words we'd heard before, "We have to thank Arik Sharon for bringing us to this beautiful place. It's because of him that we're here."

Young families have already moved into Minhelet Kela's star project, Maoz HaYam.

Nadia explains, "So many families contacted us about moving down here that we didn't have enough ready-made homes for them. Then someone said, 'What about the hotel?' So we got permission from the owners to renew it. There wasn't a window, a toilet, electricity, anything. It was a total churban (ruin)."

While we visit, volunteers are hooking up the former hotel rooms to electricity. I had heard that quite a number of volunteers were working all over the hotel, but I had no idea how many until Nadia pulls up with lunch for the crew. Suddenly, out of every corner of the premises - the dining room, the hotel lobby, the vacation rooms, the roof - sun-browned adults and teens come down for their falafels.

As Voices went to press, police were about to raid Maoz HaYam, blaming residents for an Arab-Jewish ruckus that occurred on the beach nearby.

Faith and "Pass the Hammer"

Volunteers helping refurbish the former hotel come from everywhere. Kablanim (builders), especially those from Gush Etzion, have donated sinks, faucets, piping, wiring, toilets, tiles, beams, and many other varied building supplies for the renewal. Construction professionals - renovators, builders, electricians, plumbers - and non-professional hard workers have dedicated days and even weeks to the task.

Among the many recruits spread out through Gush Katif, one Bet Shemesh resident said he spent his day putting locks and handles on doors, cleaning up broken glass, and putting his shoulder to anything needed. Another volunteer, a plumber commented, "I took one wing of the hotel and brought ten bathrooms up to usable status. Ten faucets, ten valves, six toilets, eight sink traps, ten showers, and one burst main line that had to be repaired while under live pressure (yes, I got soaked)."

All the volunteers feel a tremendous sense of accomplishment at the end of each day, seeing the results of their toil.

More volunteers, especially construction workers and renovation professionals, are needed to continue restoring the hotel so that it will be ready for the dozens of families who are waiting for their rooms to be completed. In order to volunteer your help, or to donate building supplies, please contact Josh Adler, firstcls@netvision.net.il.

Already, Nadia notes, 150 new families have moved down to Gush Katif, and hundreds more are expected.

Nadia hopes tens of thousands of people will come down to Gush Katif. "Rav Neriah, ztz'l, said that the Army's head of Yamit's expulsion told him, 'If you only had organized another 20,000 Jews.'"

She says that Minhelet Kela's next project will be planning tent cities on the beach below Maoz HaYam, Shirat HaYam and Kfar Yam for those families that come to Gush Katif without a home to stay in.

Faith and Gratitude

Long day! Driving home, we get a better glance at the new Pina Chama (soldier's hospitality hut) that stands on the road outside Netzer Chazani. The hut, built in memory of the Hatuel family, HY"D, is manned daily by the teenagers of Gush Katif.

The Pina Chama has a guest book that soldiers sign. One note reads, "Thank you for everything you do for us. We hope you'll always be here."

Faith and Miracles

Everywhere we visit in Gush Katif, someone has a story of a miracle in that place. Well, many of these stories have been put together in a moving and inspiring book - "Al HaNissim" (About the Miracles). Written in easy Hebrew, I read it together with my children. Buy it in your local bookstore.

Lastly, visit Gush Katif. Trips are being organized every day from cities throughout the country. If you'd like to know where you can get a trip to Katif, check out http://english.katif.net.

As we leave Gush Katif, four buses wait while their teenage riders have a picnic under the palm trees. Two boys walk toward the beach with surfboards. A regular beach town scene. B"H, for miracles and for regular days.

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