GAZA, BY DAVID SILVERMAN

Israeli Settlers Voluntarily Evacuate West Bank Homes.
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DISENGAGEMENT 2005
by David Silverman

Covering the Israeli withdrawal of its settlers and forces from the Gaza Strip and northern West Bank is telling a story of determination.

Of Jewish settlers, with blind faith in a greater Israel they believe was given to the biblical Abraham by God for eternity, determined to stay in their homes, remain within their settlement communities and continue farming their land.

Of the Israeli army and police doing their utmost to fulfill an order … to evacuate 8,000 settlers from their homes … an order they were never trained to do, until now.

Of the hundreds of families who chose to evacuate ahead of the August 15, 2005 disengagement have accepted their fate and are making new lives for themselves with the help and understanding of a government that sent them to the occupied territories in the first place.

In the next week, the whole world will see how this unfolds: Will Jewish soldiers really force Jewish settlers from their homes? Will a popular movement against the withdrawal put a halt to the process? Will the evacuation take place with the help and coordination of the Palestinian Authority and its forces? Or will it become a tempting target for the Hamas and Islamic Jihad militants?

Right-wing Israelis Block Roads In Protest Against Gaza Withdrawal .
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I doubted the evacuation would take place when Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon first announced his plan in December 2003. I remember thinking back then it would be just another idea on the bombed-out road to Israeli-Palestinian peace that would join the chronology other grand ideas.

How things have changed. Three events that I have photographed in recent months show me the determination of the parties to this story:

The sadness in the faces of one of the first families to leave a settlement under the disengagement plan, the effort the army and the police are making to ensure the evacuation will go ahead as peacefully and successfully as possible and finally the pain and the faith of the settlers who hope never to abandon the Gaza Strip.


Israeli Settlers Protest Graves Relocation. David Silverman/Getty Images

c David Silverman
Staff Photographer
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