August 17: Gaza Settlers Evicted

Thousands of Israeli soldiers began to evict Jewish settlers from Gaza on this date in 2005. Out of a total of 8,500 Jews in twenty-one settlements in Gaza, about a third had refused to heed the Israeli government’s 48-hour evacuation order, but most of the resistance to the eviction was non-violent, and Palestinian armed forces restrained themselves from any significant attacks during the operation. On the West Bank, however (where four northern settlements were evacuated), an Israeli settler shot three Palestinians he was driving to their jobs. Prime Minister Ariel Sharon called the deed “Jewish terror” aimed “against innocent Palestinians, out of twisted thinking, aimed at stopping the disengagement.” The “Hitnatkut” (disengagement), which included the demolition of residential buildings, was completed in Gaza by September 12, and in the West Bank by September 22. Israel retained control of Gaza’s coastline, infrastructure and airspace, while Egypt controlled Gaza’s Egyptian border. Sharon’s disengagement plan was sharply criticized by both the Israeli right (as a betrayal of his election rhetoric and life-long policies) and the Israeli left (as a unilateral effort to shake free of Gaza while increasing Israel’s control of the West Bank, where there were more than a quarter of a million Jewish settlers). Dov Weissglass, Sharon’s chief of staff, declared the “significance of the disengagement plan” to be “the freezing of the peace process” to “prevent the establishment of a Palestinian state . . . prevent a discussion on the refugees, the borders and Jerusalem. Disengagement supplies the amount of formaldehyde that is necessary so there will not be a political process with the Palestinians.”
“Don’t attack the men and women in uniform. Don’t accuse them. Don’t make it harder for them, don’t harm them. Attack me. I am responsible for this.” —Ariel Sharon