From: Nadia & David Matar [mailto:nmatar@netvision.net.il] Subject: Zionist shopping in Nitzan - שופינג ציוני בניצן
Dear Friends, We are writing these words a few minutes after coming back from a moving and exciting Women in Green solidarity trip to Nitzan, the refugee camp in Lachish where our friends from Gush Katif have been dumped in cardboard homes after being expelled from their flourishing communities in Gush Katif. Close to 50 people joined the trip , from all over the country: Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, Bet Shemesh, Haifa, Karnei Shomron, Gush Etzion, Kiryat Arba Hevron etc.... we came to strengthen our brothers in Nitzan in a very special way: we came to shop in their shops , galleries, supermarkets etc... in one word : Zionist shopping!! Our dear friends Rachel and Moshe Saperstein welcomed us and gave us the "grand tour". First we went to the Orange Gallery where artists from Gush katif display and sell their beautiful work of art. Then we went on a "tour" of the sewage pipes of Nitzan. Yes, you read correctly. The sewage pipes. Since Nitzan has come into the launching range of the Arab Grad missiles from Gaza, and since in Nitzan the houses are all from cardboard, the government has thought of a unique and cynical way of "protecting" the Gush Katif expellees: sewage pipes have been put in the streets and , when hearing the "Red Alert" sirene, people are supposed to run into the sewage pipes for protection. The reason the siren is called "Red Alert" is that the siren is not simply a siren that makes noise but in some places it is a recording of a voice shouting in Hebrew "Tzeva Adom- Tzeva Adom" (Red Alert-Red alert). Many of the sewage pipes have been painted by the Nitzan residents. One of the most impressive sewage pipe (see link to pictures below) is the pipe on which was painted the slogan " YOU EXPELLED THE ORANGE- YOU RECEIVED THE RED"; clearly explaining that those who expelled the Jews from Gush Katif, the orange camp, brought upon all of us the kassams and missiles (symbolized by the Red Alert). Women in Green also brought spray paint and used it to decorate our own sewage pipe with slogans: The Land of Israel belongs to the People of Israel etc... After our "artistic" experience we went to Rachel and Moshe's house who welcomed us with coffee and cake. A journalist from Channel One Israel Tv happened to be there . He told us that he realized that the time had come to give the microphone to those who have been expelled, those who were laughed at by the Left when they warned that the expulsion from Gush Katif and the capitulation from the Gaza Strip would bring kassams to the South of the country.
Our day ended with some more Zionist shopping in the different stores of Nitzan. Eventhough we had received instructions as to what to do if and when the Red Alert would sound, we did not hear the siren during our morning. We did hear the siren far away in Ashkelon. We left around 2:30pm, hugging our dear friends in Nitzan, promising them to come back and to organize such trips in other places too like in Ein Tzurim etc... On our way back to Jerusalem we looked at the road we used so often to go down to Gush Katif and we vowed and prayed: please G-d may the day come soon when we will free Gaza from its Arab occupation, reinstall Jewish sovereignty over Gaza and rebuild our beautiful Gush Katif. for pictures by Rivkah Rybak http://www.yeshabulletin.com/FIGHT%20BACK/FightBack.htm With love for Israel, Nadia Matar Anita Finkelstein Women in Green