A Protester's View

Eyewitness describes removal of settlers from Gaza synagogue.

HARRY KIRS BAUM
Staff Writer

E

e snuck into Gaza on Aug.
14, on Tisha b'Av, disguised
in a long-haired wig, base-
ball cap, shorts and sneakers. He
rode into Gaza on a bus with 60 sol-
diers and a few other handpicked
press members.
But he only looked the part.
Four days later, "journalist" Michel
ben Yaakov, a middle-aged Orthodox
husband and father of six who lives
and works near Jerusalem, found him-
self at the flashpoint of Israel's contro-
versial disengagement plan — the
main synagogue of Gaza's Neve
Dekalim. That's when he dropped the
"journalist" charade and became a
protester.
"I wanted to come document histo-
ry there, see history for myself," said
ben Yaakov, who has connections to
Metro Detroit and is fearful of retri-
bution from the Israeli government,
which is cracking down on those who
entered Gaza to protest.
Ben Yaakov traveled throughout
Gaza earlier in the week with a free-
lance cameraman and said he wit-
nessed painfully sad moments.
"There was one man being taken
out of his home alone," he said. "He
had sent off his wife and children ear-
lier because he didn't want his family
to experience that.
"He was a big man, about 280 lbs,
and it took a lot to carry him out. He
tried to resist the best he could. It was
just heart-wrenching," said ben
Yaakov, his voice cracking. "Watching
this man experience this all by him-
self"
He also described another family
from Peru, forced out of their Gaza
home.
"They looked like Third World
immigrants," he said. "They finally
made the Promised Land, and now
they're just yanked out again."
On Aug. 18, as Israeli troops and
riot police surrounded the Neve
Dekalim synagogue, ben Yaakov' s
heart broke again.
"The building was surrounded for

Protesters face off with Israeli police in the Gaza Strip settlement of
Neve Dekalim on Aug. 16

hours, and we knew that at any
minute, they could be coming in," he
said. "I saw this one girl going
through the flower beds in the garden
of the shul, putting little pieces of
trash in the bags. Life goes on.
"This was [a Jewish] community,
and we were going to protect it and
clean it as if we were going to have it
forever," he said.
About 1,000 women were evacuated
first, and they sang "Ani Ma'amin" as
the action took place. One of the rab-
bis spoke to the women, who were
whimpering.
"-When it came time for us men in
the shul, we did Avinyu Malkenu,"'
he said. "I was in tears the whole time,
from start to finish."

Amazing Parallels

Ben Yaakov, the son of Holocaust sur-
vivors, said he's always been adamantly
against equating any experience with
the Holocaust because it cheapens the
Holocaust.
But, in this particular situation, he
says there were just too many visual
parallels.
"I couldn't help but think that this
must be how it felt," he said of seeing
people wearing orange stars, sitting in

a shul surrounded by those in black
uniforms standing outside shoulder-
to-shoulder.
At around 2 p.m. the police began
arriving, and it took about 4 1/2
hours to clear the synagogue, he said.
They sent in riot police first for
about 30 minutes, got about 20 peo-
ple out, then the soldiers came in, he
said. Ben Yaakov walked around to
encourage the younger people, to
commend them and comfort those
who emotionally were having real
problems.
"I spoke in English," he said. "I told
the soldiers that these were illegal,
immoral orders, that they shouldn't be
here, that they should go home, that
60 years ago in history people gave
excuses that they were only following
orders.
Occasionally, he would call his
wife, Shira, then hold the phone out
so she could hear the prayers, hear
the rabbis talking and the women
crying.
"It was difficult," she said simply.
When it was his time, ben Yaakov
put on his backpack and got on the
floor. It took about eight soldiers to
get him on the bus and he made them
carry him all the way.
"They offered me water on the bus,

and I told them I'm not taking water,"
he said. "It's a fast day now It didn't
dawn on me until they offered me the
water, how could I drink water? I
should be fasting.
"Once on the bus I tried to get off
the bus, just like when the knife is on
the throat, you can't give up," he said.
"As long as there are Jews in Gush
Katif and Gaza, we still have to believe
there is still a chance that something
could happen.
"Maybe the Arabs would fire some
mortars at the last minute, and Israel
will wake up and know what they
have to do. I was operating from the
standpoint that I was on a high level
of prayer, and anything is possible and
we have to fight it to the end."
Unlike when he arrived on a full bus
four days earlier, only six of the pro-
testers were on this bus. Along the
way, they picked up another three
people.
"I was very proud of the people I
was with," he said, adding they were
mostly teenagers. "There was one per-
son on the bus having very big emo-
tional problems; he was just crying the
whole time, and some of us were try-
ing to help him."
At 8:30 p.m., he said, the bus pulled
up and let everyone off, as if it was a
public bus on a normal route.
Ben Yaakov said he knew the press
showed soldiers crying with the set-
tlers, but he didn't witness that him-
self. He did see how easy it was for the
army to dismantle the settlements,
and that disturbs him.
"People say that [the disengage-
ment] was just Gaza and Gush Katif.
Uh-uh," he said. "I'm one of those
believers now, in terms of how devas-
tating and how much we are at risk.
As long as Sharon is in power, and as
long as people don't try to replace
him, Israel is in great danger in terms
of its political survival, in terms of its
spirit, and everything that's involved
with the Jewish state.
"Human emotion is more powerful
than what history has proved other-
wise," he said. "They're ignoring his-
torical fact. It's a black day in the his-
tory of the Jewish people." II

8/25
2005

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