5 7 6 4 2 1 3 66 67 Chapter Five | The Se�lements But he only landed a par�al success. Several dozen went to the place designated for the establishment of Elei Sinai. A registra�on of new candidates was conducted, and a temporary tent was erected to prepare for the ceremony planned for the next day. The next day, they broke ground, s�ll unofficially. The official groundbreaking ceremony was held only three days later, on the 23rd of Tishrei 5743 (10/07/1982). Once again, the date was no coincidence: It was Yamit's seventh anniversary. Seven years earlier, on the Sukkot holiday 5736 (1975), the first apartments were inaugurated there. "I hope that now, seven good years of widespread se�lement in the territories shall begin. This summer we will open the bathing beach located on the site of the se�lement, to the public," Farhan said at the ceremony. The Deputy Minister of Agriculture, Michael Dekel, said that the government intends to se�le 70 thousand addi�onal Jews in Judea, Samaria and the Gaza Strip.6 The establishment of the se�lement did not progress. Only about a year later, on the 22nd of Elul 5744 (08/31/1983), the first two families arrived on site: Avi and Laura Farhan and their three children, and Michael and Lucy Brenner, their friends from Yamit. Only fi�een months later, three more families arrived: Avraham A�as, Moshe Adasha and Moshe Kramer. The establishment of Elei Sinai was integrated into the trend led by the Head of Council, Reuven Rosenbla�, to develop a se�lement in the north of the Gaza Strip that was pre-defined as a secular se�lement. The nearby council within the green line was the Ashkelon Coast Regional Council, all of its se�lements were secular. In this regional concept, the Netzarim region was designated for the religious kibbutz so that it could be integrated into the kibbutz group of Sa'ad and Alumim, while the Gush Ka�f region, which from the beginning was connected to the Azata Regional Council, was supposed to connect with the locali�es of this council and the Eshkol Regional Council. Rosenbla� saw the heart of the strip as inhabited by a religious se�lement and its two edges - north and south - as secular blocs. For this purpose, Yigal Segal, a resident of Ne�v HaAsara, and former Head of the Yamit Regional Council, was recruited. His role was to deal with the issue of bringing in secular se�lers, compile the lists of candidates for this se�lement, maintain contact with them and act as a coordinator and catalyst for the various par�es involved in establishing the secular se�lements in the Gaza Strip.7 The main opposi�on to the plan was from the se�ler movement, the Hapoel HaMizrachi Moshavim Union, which saw Gush Ka�f in par�cular and the Gaza Strip in general as its empire, and planned to establish only religious Zionists, Hapoel HaMizrachi se�lements there. Rosenbla� returned and explained to his friends the necessity of a Jewish popula�on as diverse as possible and not of a purely religious nature. In his opinion, this will result in an engagement of par�san and poli�cal elements in the Gaza Strip in addi�on to the religious bodies, which would, in turn, lead to the crea�on of a firmer, more solid founda�on, especially given the hardships and challenges that were s�ll to come in the future. One of the most beau�ful beaches in Israel Avi Farhan: We arrived at a pris�ne, primeval loca�on, where in the past there were perhaps only caravans passing through the ancient ocean route. The UN soldiers who sat in the strip between the Suez Crisis (Sinai Opera�on of 1956) and the Six Day War (1967) were also here - I found beer bo�les that tes�fied to that. A beau�ful place. In the morning, we would walk and see does skipping on the hills. We dreamed of fishing. There is an excep�onal sea here, an infinite space. One of the most beau�ful beaches in Israel. We had a vision: I wanted to establish an ideological se�lement, which is also home to people from neighborhoods. I was unsuccessful in doing so. Young people from the ci�es came to the se�lement, some of them former Yamit residents. Not everyone stayed. Some of them were worn out under the wheels of bureaucracy. I learned from Rabbi Yisrael Ariel, who was my rabbi at Yamit, that "through repeatedly doing something not for its own sake, one eventually does do it for its own sake", meaning: that people will eventually fall in love with the place. The person from the kibbutz also feels the connec�on to the land. Since he received his posi�on from the poli�cal elements in the Mafdal, Rosenbla� faced an unpleasant situa�on when he insisted on this posi�on against the posi�on of his movement - but he eventually won. He had a regional concept that he believed in, and he did not accept any dictates, even from the leaders of his own movement. 8 In the mid-1980s, families con�nued to flow into Elei Sinai. In 5746 (1986) 10 families lived in Elei Sinai out of a 20-families nucleus.9 On 20th of Tamuz 5748 (07/05/1988), a�er six years of living in trailers, the first 20 families of Elei Sinai moved to the se�lement's permanent buildings. They noted this in a modest ceremony, a�ended by government ministries' representa�ves and the Jewish Agency, people of Amana and the regional council. The Ministry of Housing prepared all the infrastructure, the leveling of the area, and gave the se�lers loans on favorable terms so that they could build their homes as part of the 'Build Your Home' program. This is how Phase I of Elei Sinai was built.10 Most of the local residents were engaged in free trade professions. Some of them were engaged in agriculture and industry. Another branch was the touris�c area at Shikma beach. On the 17th of Tishrei 5762, (10/02/2001), a resident of the se�lement, Liron Harpaz (R.I.P.), and her friend, Asaf Yitzhaki, (R.I.P.) were murdered by a terrorist who entered Elei Sinai and fired at all direc�ons. In Av of 5764 (August 2005), 94 families lived there.11 On Sunday morning, the 16th of Av 5765, (08/21/2005), the government decided to also evacuate the se�lements in the northern Gaza Strip. That morning, the residents of Elei Sinai le� the gate of their se�lement in a long convoy for the last �me. 1 Elei Sinai houses against the backdrop of the Ashkelon power plant 2 Public buildings in Elei Sinai 3 The beach in the north of the region 4 A street in Elei Sinai 5 Signs in the se�lement on the eve of disengagement 6 Ariel Zilber next to the monument in memory of Liron Harpaz and Asaf Yitzhaki (May God Avenge Their Deaths) who were murdered in Elei Sinai 7 The entrance sign to the se�lement
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