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YOUR VOICES (If you’d like to write a story for VOICES website, please email izzy@actcom.co.il) VOICES takes no responsibility for the opinion of the contributing writers |
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SOMEWHERE IN ISRAEL TONIGHT Dear Family and Friends, Somewhere in Israel tonight, there is a woman whose life has been pretty much like mine. She's done laundry and shopping and picked the toys up from the floor hundreds of times. She's planned menus and welcomed guests, bandaged skinned knees and kissed away bad dreams. She's worked at home and perhaps outside it too. At the end of another day she's been tired, but thankful for her home, her husband and her children, thankful they've found a place to raise their family, to contribute to a community, to be. Sometimes people ask me what living in Israel is like, and I usually say it is like life anywhere: people work, drive carpool, check homework, make sandwiches for their kids, help their neighbors. These are the day-to-day things that we all take for granted.....until they're not there. Somewhere in Israel tonight there is a women whose life and the life of her family have been ripped apart. This morning her husband, who worked hard for many years planting and growing produce in a place where nothing grew before, had idle hands and a stunned look on his face. This morning her children asked again where they will go to school and why they can't go home and when will they have their own beds and their toys and their friends back. This morning her family was told they have a week to find somewhere else to go because the place they are now cannot keep them any longer. This morning a government official told them they will be charged fees for the removal of their belongings from their home, for the storage of those belongings, even for shutting off the electricity in a house that has already been reduced to rubble. This morning some commentators on TV and in the press called her and her family troublemakers, opportunists, anarchists and fanatics. This morning some politician said the government has provided every accommodation and even luxuries for this woman and her family, but she and her husband have refused it, so no one should feel sorry for them. Somewhere in Israel tonight there is a woman who worked hard to establish a home and family, who gave more to than she took from her community. Somewhere in Israel tonight there is a woman who thinks everyone has forgotten about her and her family, that everyone believes all is well and no one cares to hear anything different. She has no house, no home, no voice. Well I have a voice. No matter what side of the political fence you are on, no matter what your opinions on the policies and recent actions of the current Government, it is time to deal with the woefully inadequate, ill-planned, callous way the Jewish former residents of Gush Katif (Gaza) are being treated. You know me. You know I am not particularly political. Please believe me when I tell you that for that woman and her family, and 1700 families like them, things are not going at all well. Those families who left before the deadline are living in glorified tenement camps. Many of them arrived at their new "homes" to find raw sewage on the floors from unfinished drainage systems, no electricity, no roads, no place to buy milk. How big is your house? Can you imagine being moved to a house a quarter or a fifth of the size you have now and being told to be grateful for it? Can you imagine your whole neighborhood riding on a bus for six hours with no bathroom, arriving at some hotel and being turned away by the management because they know nothing of your arrival? Can you imagine being charged a ridiculously inflated rent for a place you've been moved to against your will? Can you imagine being forcibly separated not only from your home but from the friends and neighbors you've depended on for years? I think you should know that the stress, trauma and uncertainty that these citizens are experiencing now is, in many ways, worse than anything they've gone through before. Please do not believe the party line you are hearing from government officials or the press. Please open your eyes and see what is going on. I did not write this to ask you to call anyone or contribute to any organizations. I am not suggesting you hold demonstrations or send out faxes. Somewhere in Israel tonight there is a woman lying awake in a crowded room, crying silent tears. The very least we can do is cry with her. I just thought you should know. Esther May Efrat, Israel |