Immediately after Prime Minister Sharon’s surprise announcement, the people of Gush Katif realized that they needed to spearhead the movement opposing the Disengagement Plan despite their inexperience and unwillingness to engage in the political arena. This is how the campaign headquarters of Gush Katif (known as the Mateh) started. From the beginning, it determined on a strategy of non-violent popular activities, and out of a sense of national responsibility set the campaign boundaries in order to prevent being dragged into a civil war.
The striking features of the Gush Katif campaign were the face-to-face program leading up to the Likud party referendum, the human chain, and the orange ribbon.
The activists of the Mateh were also busy among the residents of Gush Katif, encouraging them to remain living at home. They did not do this thinking that the Disengagement Plan would not be implemented; they realized that it very well might. However, they considered that by staying and continuing to live at home, it would send a powerful message and assist the campaign. They did so fully prepared to pay the costs.
Other Activist Groups – Of course, other groups also took part in the opposition to the Disengagement Plan. The Yesha Council was the most important and central among them and led the parliamentary and media activities. One of the main projects of the Yesha Council was the march to Kfar Maimon.
The Orange Cell (Ta Katom) – For the first time, a student organization was established which worked extensively within the campuses and tried to get the general student public to join the campaign’s activities to prevent the Disengagment Plan.
Militant Groups – Alongside the main organizations, there were additional groups characterized by more militant activities, such as calling on IDF soldiers to refuse orders, blocking roads and organizing for active resistance on the roof in Kfar Darom.
Choosing the Orange Color – the first action of the Gush Katif campaign was to organize a march from Gush Katif to Jerusalem. The campaign staff asked the women to choose a color for the t-shirts for the march. One of the women glanced outside the window and noticed the Gush Katif regional council’s orange flag fluttering in the breeze and suggested orange since it stood out vividly. They accepted her proposal. Later, this color was adopted for additional Gush Katif campaign activities and became the symbol representing the entire campaign to keep Gush Katif as part of the state of Israel.
The Likud Party Referendum – due to the public’s opposition to this new plan which was perceived as antithesis to the Likud Party platform, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon suggested holding a referendum among the Likud party members and promised to honor the results. The Gush Katif Mateh chose to lead an innovative course of action of going door to door among these Likud party members. Within a short amount of time, many headquarters organized throughout the country, information and explanatory materials were put together, and developed the necessary logistic management. During the peak, more than 20,000 people went door to door.
On Referendum Day, Tali Hatuel and her five daughters were murdered on the Kissufim road when they were on their way to help convince Likud party members at the election polls to vote against the Disengagement Plan.
After the votes were counted, it was clear that Prime Minister Sharon had suffered a large defeat. Despite this, he chose to ignore the position of the Likud voters and circumvented them in what was referred to as the “Livni Compromise”. He succeeded in passing the government resolution only after firing government ministers Alon and Liberman in order to create a majority for his position.
The Human Chain – after overcoming their shock from Prime Minister Sharon’s obliterating the results of the Likud Referendum, the people of Gush Katif felt the need to create an entirely different protest event from what was known up to then in Israel. They researched protest groups around the world and came across the concept of the human chain and decided to adopt it. This initiative matched their world view which believed in the power of peaceful demonstrations built upon mass participation of the public.
In the discussions before deciding, the demonstration experts argued that this initiative was contrary to all the principles of a demonstration; concentrating people into one area to create a sense of a large public. They feared that scattering people along a human chain would cause large “gaps” along the way, and that the media would choose to “latch onto” those areas.
But the Gush Katif Mateh were determined to do something different, and they set out.
Initially, they recruited volunteers from among the people of Gush Katif and started work on the vast logistic operations, and on recruiting activists from around the country.
The rationale of the human chain was based upon each place taking responsibility for a link in the chain. That way each place would feel that they were partners in the campaign to keep Gush Katif. This idea “spoke” to many people, including those who were not used to attending demonstrations.
The Gush Katif Mateh traveled the country and tried to identify in each place a nucleus of activists who would be willing to take charge for local recruitment. It appeared that they were very successful, and the results exceeded their expectations, and the logistics proceeded smoothly without any mishaps.
The event effected wide waves throughout the country, but the prime minister remained determined to execute his Disengagement Plan.
The Orange Ribbon – with the approach of Israel Independence Day 2005 the campaign headquarters wanted to fly flags on cars as a sign of opposition to the Disengagement Plan. However, since they did not want to create a situation of a substitute flag for the state, they chose the idea of simply adding an orange ribbon to the Israeli flag. Following the positive reception of this initiative, it was continued after Independence Day. Many activists took this upon themselves. They recruited young volunteers, and these stood in central intersections and distributed the orange ribbon. It was received with much sympathy and public approval. The sight of the main highways filled with orange ribbons expressed the public’s opposition to the Disengagement Plan and highlighted the claim that Sharon’s Disengagement Plan did not have large public support. In Sharon’s circle there were already voices calling on postponing the Disengagement Plan by a few months.
Militant activities in that time included harming the Palestinians living on the Gush Katif beach, calling on IDF soldiers to refuse orders, and blocking roads. These actions harmed the wave of public support, represented by the orange ribbon, and instead encouraged the support for the Disengagement Plan.
Kfar Mimon – the Yesha Council initiated a march in support of the people of Gush Katif. The route was from Netivot to Gush Katif. They also wished to awaken opposition to the Disengagement Plan among MKs who would not want to cause a rift in the nation.
Tens of thousands of men, women and children answered the Yesha Council’s call and started to march toward Gush Katif. They were met with large forces of armed military and police. For the first time, the Israeli government stopped buses and prevented them from heading down to Netivot. Additionally, they used IDF soldiers within the Green Line in order to prevent a civilian demonstration.
The large forces of the military and the police ensured that all the demonstration participators entered the community of Kfar Mimon, where they remained in a blockade for several days. There was a serious disagreement among the demonstrators in Kfar Mimon whether they should break out and continue marching toward Gush Katif or avoid the great danger of a direct conflict with IDF soldiers which might lead to bloodshed. In the end, the Yesha Council leaders, with the backing of the religious Zionist rabbis, decided not to break through. This was despite the fact that during those days the leadership had created a feeling that they would break through. This decision was harshly criticized by the demonstration participators who felt that they had been betrayed.