Kfar Darom
Encyclopedia
Kfar Darom was a kibbutz
and an Israeli settlement
within the Gush Katif
bloc in the Gaza Strip
.
s of land (about 25 hectares or 60 acres) purchased in 1930 by Tuvia Miller for a fruit orchard on the site of an ancient Jewish settlement of the same name mentioned in the Talmud
. Following the 1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine, Miller sold his land to the Jewish National Fund
in 1946. A community was established on the land at the close of Yom Kippur
on 5 and 6 October 1946, by Hapoel HaMizrachi
's kibbutz movement as part of the 11 points in the Negev
settlement plan. The community was named after a Talmudic-period village of the same name that was located near the site.
In the summer of 1948, after numerous battles
, the community was abandoned following a three month siege by the Egyptian army during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War
.
in 1967, and its subsequent occupation of the Gaza Strip
, a Nahal
military outpost was established at the site in 1970. In 1989, this was converted to a civilian community by the Israeli national unity government of Shimon Peres
(Alignment
) and Yitzhak Shamir
(Likud
).
, there were about sixty families, totaling about 330 people, who earned their living from the free working professions, agriculture, and a central packing center for the world renowned insect-free vegetables produced by the Gaza Jewish communities. The village also had an elementary school, a kollel
for religious (adults married men) students and the "Torah and Land" Institute, for research into religious laws relating to agriculture in Israel. The visitor center
contained the Garden of Commandments Museum, which illustrated commandments
relating to the Land of Israel
.
, as well as other supporters from the rest of Israel and abroad, mostly religious youth, concentrated themselves in the synagogue
. It was turned into a makeshift fortress, where they barricaded themselves inside, piling up furniture near the ground floor entrances and surrounding the roof with barbed wired to prolong their resistance. They had also brought a large amount of food and water, in hopes that they would indeed last long enough to need it. Inside the synagogue, a few hundred people (mostly local settlers) locked arms and remained sitting on the floor inside. Rabbi
s wearing reflective vests were on hand in order to make sure that no violence ensued, not unlike unofficial referees. The settlement supporters from elsewhere were mostly located on the roof, perhaps numbering up to 300. The IDF
eventually broke through the barricaded front door, and set to work of dragging each person out from the lower floor individually. An agreement was made that no police
would enter the synagogue and that the work would be carried out by soldiers.
After the bottom floor was secured, the police set to work on reaching the roof. The stairs had been ruled out since oil had been poured and the door to the roof was blocked with sand bags. The barricaders succeed in prolonging the police siege in that they forced them to think of alternate ways of reaching the roof. At approximately 6:30 p.m. local time as the sun was setting, the tactical decision was made that no Jews would be allowed to remain overnight. With the protesters still under the assumption that they would be staying the night, the Police took advantage and began to move in heavy equipment. A water cannon located on site and began spraying the people on the roof with water and blue soap. One man attempted to shut down one of the water cannons, but was immediately hauled away. The front tires of the truck were slashed.
The soldiers began closing in on the area, bringing ladders and other equipment, such as wire cutters to begin to get on top of the roof. Cranes were moved into the site in order to lift 40 ft containers turned into makeshift troop carriers, and land them on the roof. When the soldiers and police got close enough, they aimed fire extinguishers at the crowd and the protesters on the roof began to throw sand at the troops to no avail, as they were all wearing facemasks. When they brought the ladders up close, and began to cut into the barbed wire, they started dumping oil and gasoline, as well as buckets of sand and feathers. The protesters also used long wooden poles to keep the ladders from reaching the roof, and managed to hold them at bay.
As an effort to finally dock the ladders with the roof, the police rolled in a heavy water cannon. It first fired at the sign that had stood there, puncturing it and knocking it over. They then fired at the protesters, forcing them back from the edge. The protesters then desperately rushed back to the wall, and pushed the ladder back again. The Police fired again at the settlers, this time allowing the ladders to dock with the synagogue. The protesters then began to dump buckets of the very blue water and foam that was shot at them onto the ascending police.
One policeman made it up to the roof after several minutes of effort, and almost was almost pushed over a ledge onto the barbed wire directly below but was pushed back with a quick spurt of the water cannons below. Once police reached the top, the struggle had ended, literally. The protesters stopped their resistance and were peacefully removed from the roof and arrested. Moshe Leshem was the last to be removed, and at nightfall he, and the soldiers on the roof, made one last prayer at the synagogue, and left for the very last time. 250 protesters were arrested and taken to the Dekel prison. They were released after a week.
. All expulsions after this went much more smoothly. Following the eviction and Israeli withdrawal, Palestinians razed the synagogue.
Kibbutz
A kibbutz is a collective community in Israel that was traditionally based on agriculture. Today, farming has been partly supplanted by other economic branches, including industrial plants and high-tech enterprises. Kibbutzim began as utopian communities, a combination of socialism and Zionism...
and an Israeli settlement
Israeli settlement
An Israeli settlement is a Jewish civilian community built on land that was captured by Israel from Jordan, Egypt, and Syria during the 1967 Six-Day War and is considered occupied territory by the international community. Such settlements currently exist in the West Bank...
within the Gush Katif
Gush Katif
Gush Katif was a bloc of 17 Israeli settlements in the southern Gaza strip. Gush Katif was specifically mentioned by Yitzhak Rabin, the Israeli prime minister who fell victim to an assassin in 1995, as essential to Israel's security border. In August 2005, the Israeli army moved the 8,600...
bloc in the Gaza Strip
Gaza Strip
thumb|Gaza city skylineThe Gaza Strip lies on the Eastern coast of the Mediterranean Sea. The Strip borders Egypt on the southwest and Israel on the south, east and north. It is about long, and between 6 and 12 kilometres wide, with a total area of...
.
Original kibbutz
Kfar Darom was founded on 250 dunamDunam
A dunam or dönüm, dunum, donum, dynym, dulum was a non-SI unit of land area used in the Ottoman Empire and representing the amount of land that can be plowed in a day; its value varied from 900–2500 m²...
s of land (about 25 hectares or 60 acres) purchased in 1930 by Tuvia Miller for a fruit orchard on the site of an ancient Jewish settlement of the same name mentioned in the Talmud
Talmud
The Talmud is a central text of mainstream Judaism. It takes the form of a record of rabbinic discussions pertaining to Jewish law, ethics, philosophy, customs and history....
. Following the 1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine, Miller sold his land to the Jewish National Fund
Jewish National Fund
The Jewish National Fund was founded in 1901 to buy and develop land in Ottoman Palestine for Jewish settlement. The JNF is a quasi-governmental, non-profit organisation...
in 1946. A community was established on the land at the close of Yom Kippur
Yom Kippur
Yom Kippur , also known as Day of Atonement, is the holiest and most solemn day of the year for the Jews. Its central themes are atonement and repentance. Jews traditionally observe this holy day with a 25-hour period of fasting and intensive prayer, often spending most of the day in synagogue...
on 5 and 6 October 1946, by Hapoel HaMizrachi
Hapoel HaMizrachi
Hapoel HaMizrachi |Mizrachi]] Workers) was a political party and settlement movement in Israel and is one of the predecessors of the National Religious Party.-History:...
's kibbutz movement as part of the 11 points in the Negev
11 points in the Negev
11 points in the Negev refers to a Jewish Agency plan for establishing eleven settlements in the Negev in 1946, prior to the establishment of the State of Israel.-History:...
settlement plan. The community was named after a Talmudic-period village of the same name that was located near the site.
In the summer of 1948, after numerous battles
Battles of Kfar Darom
The Battles of Kfar Darom refer to a number of military engagements in 1947–1948 between the Jewish Haganah and various Arab forces in the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, in the southern kibbutz Kfar Darom. The most notable battles were fought on May 13–15, 1948, between the Palmach and the Egyptian army,...
, the community was abandoned following a three month siege by the Egyptian army during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War
1948 Arab-Israeli War
The 1948 Arab–Israeli War, known to Israelis as the War of Independence or War of Liberation The war commenced after the termination of the British Mandate for Palestine and the creation of an independent Israel at midnight on 14 May 1948 when, following a period of civil war, Arab armies invaded...
.
Re-establishment
Following Israel's victory in the Six-Day WarSix-Day War
The Six-Day War , also known as the June War, 1967 Arab-Israeli War, or Third Arab-Israeli War, was fought between June 5 and 10, 1967, by Israel and the neighboring states of Egypt , Jordan, and Syria...
in 1967, and its subsequent occupation of the Gaza Strip
Gaza Strip
thumb|Gaza city skylineThe Gaza Strip lies on the Eastern coast of the Mediterranean Sea. The Strip borders Egypt on the southwest and Israel on the south, east and north. It is about long, and between 6 and 12 kilometres wide, with a total area of...
, a Nahal
Nahal
Nahal is an Israel Defense Forces infantry brigade. Historically, it refers to a program that combines military service and establishment of new agricultural settlements, often in outlying areas...
military outpost was established at the site in 1970. In 1989, this was converted to a civilian community by the Israeli national unity government of Shimon Peres
Shimon Peres
GCMG is the ninth President of the State of Israel. Peres served twice as the eighth Prime Minister of Israel and once as Interim Prime Minister, and has been a member of 12 cabinets in a political career spanning over 66 years...
(Alignment
Alignment (political party)
The Alignment was an alliance of the major left-wing parties in Israel between the 1960s and 1990s. It was established in 1965 as an alliance of Mapai and Ahdut HaAvoda but was dissolved three years later when the two parties and Rafi formally merged into the Israeli Labor Party...
) and Yitzhak Shamir
Yitzhak Shamir
' is a former Israeli politician, the seventh Prime Minister of Israel, in 1983–84 and 1986–92.-Biography:Icchak Jeziernicky was born in Ruzhany , Russian Empire . He studied at a Hebrew High School in Białystok, Poland. As a youth he joined Betar, the Revisionist Zionist youth movement...
(Likud
Likud
Likud is the major center-right political party in Israel. It was founded in 1973 by Menachem Begin in an alliance with several right-wing and liberal parties. Likud's victory in the 1977 elections was a major turning point in the country's political history, marking the first time the left had...
).
Disengagement
At the point of the disengagement planIsrael's unilateral disengagement plan
Israel's unilateral disengagement plan , also known as the "Disengagement plan", "Gaza expulsion plan", and "Hitnatkut", was a proposal by Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, adopted by the government on June 6, 2004 and enacted in August 2005, to evict all Israelis from the Gaza Strip and from...
, there were about sixty families, totaling about 330 people, who earned their living from the free working professions, agriculture, and a central packing center for the world renowned insect-free vegetables produced by the Gaza Jewish communities. The village also had an elementary school, a kollel
Kollel
A kollel is an institute for full-time, advanced study of the Talmud and rabbinic literature. Like a yeshiva, a kollel features shiurim and learning sedarim ; unlike a yeshiva, the student body of a kollel are all married men...
for religious (adults married men) students and the "Torah and Land" Institute, for research into religious laws relating to agriculture in Israel. The visitor center
Visitor center
A visitor center or centre , visitor information center, tourist information center, is a physical location that provides tourist information to the visitors who tour the place or area locally...
contained the Garden of Commandments Museum, which illustrated commandments
Mitzvah
The primary meaning of the Hebrew word refers to precepts and commandments as commanded by God...
relating to the Land of Israel
Land of Israel
The Land of Israel is the Biblical name for the territory roughly corresponding to the area encompassed by the Southern Levant, also known as Canaan and Palestine, Promised Land and Holy Land. The belief that the area is a God-given homeland of the Jewish people is based on the narrative of the...
.
Protest
As the disengagement was winding down, Kfar Darom became a symbolic last stand by the Israeli settlers and their supporters on 18 August 2005. Many settlers from Gush KatifGush Katif
Gush Katif was a bloc of 17 Israeli settlements in the southern Gaza strip. Gush Katif was specifically mentioned by Yitzhak Rabin, the Israeli prime minister who fell victim to an assassin in 1995, as essential to Israel's security border. In August 2005, the Israeli army moved the 8,600...
, as well as other supporters from the rest of Israel and abroad, mostly religious youth, concentrated themselves in the synagogue
Synagogue
A synagogue is a Jewish house of prayer. This use of the Greek term synagogue originates in the Septuagint where it sometimes translates the Hebrew word for assembly, kahal...
. It was turned into a makeshift fortress, where they barricaded themselves inside, piling up furniture near the ground floor entrances and surrounding the roof with barbed wired to prolong their resistance. They had also brought a large amount of food and water, in hopes that they would indeed last long enough to need it. Inside the synagogue, a few hundred people (mostly local settlers) locked arms and remained sitting on the floor inside. Rabbi
Rabbi
In Judaism, a rabbi is a teacher of Torah. This title derives from the Hebrew word רבי , meaning "My Master" , which is the way a student would address a master of Torah...
s wearing reflective vests were on hand in order to make sure that no violence ensued, not unlike unofficial referees. The settlement supporters from elsewhere were mostly located on the roof, perhaps numbering up to 300. The IDF
Israel Defense Forces
The Israel Defense Forces , commonly known in Israel by the Hebrew acronym Tzahal , are the military forces of the State of Israel. They consist of the ground forces, air force and navy. It is the sole military wing of the Israeli security forces, and has no civilian jurisdiction within Israel...
eventually broke through the barricaded front door, and set to work of dragging each person out from the lower floor individually. An agreement was made that no police
Israel Police
The Israel Police is the civilian police force of Israel. As with most other police forces in the world, its duties include crime fighting, traffic control, maintaining public safety, and counter-terrorism...
would enter the synagogue and that the work would be carried out by soldiers.
After the bottom floor was secured, the police set to work on reaching the roof. The stairs had been ruled out since oil had been poured and the door to the roof was blocked with sand bags. The barricaders succeed in prolonging the police siege in that they forced them to think of alternate ways of reaching the roof. At approximately 6:30 p.m. local time as the sun was setting, the tactical decision was made that no Jews would be allowed to remain overnight. With the protesters still under the assumption that they would be staying the night, the Police took advantage and began to move in heavy equipment. A water cannon located on site and began spraying the people on the roof with water and blue soap. One man attempted to shut down one of the water cannons, but was immediately hauled away. The front tires of the truck were slashed.
The soldiers began closing in on the area, bringing ladders and other equipment, such as wire cutters to begin to get on top of the roof. Cranes were moved into the site in order to lift 40 ft containers turned into makeshift troop carriers, and land them on the roof. When the soldiers and police got close enough, they aimed fire extinguishers at the crowd and the protesters on the roof began to throw sand at the troops to no avail, as they were all wearing facemasks. When they brought the ladders up close, and began to cut into the barbed wire, they started dumping oil and gasoline, as well as buckets of sand and feathers. The protesters also used long wooden poles to keep the ladders from reaching the roof, and managed to hold them at bay.
As an effort to finally dock the ladders with the roof, the police rolled in a heavy water cannon. It first fired at the sign that had stood there, puncturing it and knocking it over. They then fired at the protesters, forcing them back from the edge. The protesters then desperately rushed back to the wall, and pushed the ladder back again. The Police fired again at the settlers, this time allowing the ladders to dock with the synagogue. The protesters then began to dump buckets of the very blue water and foam that was shot at them onto the ascending police.
One policeman made it up to the roof after several minutes of effort, and almost was almost pushed over a ledge onto the barbed wire directly below but was pushed back with a quick spurt of the water cannons below. Once police reached the top, the struggle had ended, literally. The protesters stopped their resistance and were peacefully removed from the roof and arrested. Moshe Leshem was the last to be removed, and at nightfall he, and the soldiers on the roof, made one last prayer at the synagogue, and left for the very last time. 250 protesters were arrested and taken to the Dekel prison. They were released after a week.
Aftermath
The incident was the largest show of force by withdrawal opponents during the entire pull out from the Gaza Strip and the northern West BankWest Bank
The West Bank ) of the Jordan River is the landlocked geographical eastern part of the Palestinian territories located in Western Asia. To the west, north, and south, the West Bank shares borders with the state of Israel. To the east, across the Jordan River, lies the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan...
. All expulsions after this went much more smoothly. Following the eviction and Israeli withdrawal, Palestinians razed the synagogue.