Published: 20 August 2019
Last updated: 4 March 2024
IT WAS A HOT, HUMID August in 2005, when an event that would prove integral to Israel’s future demonstrated to politicians, statesmen, military brass and run-of-the mill Israelis how painful and difficult it is to separate from the Palestinians when it comes to evacuating Israeli settlements.
That month the government evacuated the 21 Gush Katif settlements in its unilateral disengagement from Gaza (along with four settlements in the northern West Bank). The images are still etched in the collective Israeli memory, among them scenes of angry protesters in orange shirts brandishing placards blaring, “Jews don’t evacuate Jews!”
The disengagement lives on as a vibrant symbol in the Israeli public’s awareness but also in its political discourse. It is mentioned almost every time someone fires a missile or releases an incendiary kite from Gaza. When politicians speak about continuing to control the Palestinian population of the West Bank, they borrow examples and images from the disengagement.
Large segments of the Israeli public now feel that the disengagement was a mistake and that Israel is paying dearly for it. This leads to the inevitable question: Will the disengagement from Gaza dictate future Israeli policy regarding the possibility of disengagement from the Palestinians in the West Bank?
FULL STORY Israel's 2005 Gaza disengagement: A turning point for Israel’s right (Al-Monitor)
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Photo: An opponent of Israel's disengagement from Gaza prays before evacuation by police on the roof of a synagogue in Kfar Darom, August, 2005 (Reuters/Nir Elias)
