Talk:Yamit

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Comments

"Some Israelis settled in an unpopulated location and built a new town. They had good relations with the Bedouin residents of the Sinai."

This is a flat out lie - or atleast, I have contradictory evidence.

In 'The Fateful Triangle', Noam Chomsky quotes from 'Between Ballots and Bullets' by Yoram Peri (which I do not have a copy of so I cannot verify right now):

'After initial expropriations in 1969, military forces commanded by General Ariel Sharon, in January 1972, "drove off some ten thousand farms and bedouin, bulldozed or dynamited their houses, pulled down their tents, destroyed their crops and filled in their wells," to prepare the ground for the establishment of six kibbutzim, nine villages and the city of Yamit.'

(inner quotes are from Yoram Peri) -195.80.21.42 13:45, 9 July 2006 (UTC)

The Real Halutzim

I am not sure if any of the people who have contributed to this article were ever actually in Yamit. I was. I lived there for the entire time the town was in existence. We did get along with the local Bedouin quite well. As to the bulldozing of homes or businesses, Bedouins, by definition, had none. When construction on Yamit began, they did then create their own settlement in the dikliot (date palm oasis) that existed naturally on the beach between Yamit and the Mediterranean Sea in order to work at the many jobs that were suddenly available. For most of them, this was the first job they had ever had. My husband and I hired many of them for our various business enterprises that included a Kosher butcher shop (the only one in the Sinai), a Kosher restaurant poolside in the Community Center (it was called the Country Club by residents) and an irrigation engineering company. The homes in Yamit were some of the best in Israel. They were planned so that everyone had a large patio (mirpeset) or a garden (gan) of their own. The homes were designed around a city center with locally owned retail outlets, banking, restaurants, library, auditorium, health clinic, and synagogue (Bet Knesset). It was built in a curve with a lovely tiered fountain in the front. It was the location of all the community's festivals and celebrations. There was only one perimeter road. This enabled the residential area to be auto free. Footpaths led to each cluster of houses that surrounded a small park/playground for the children who could be left to play for hours, as they frequently did. Visitors from other parts of Israel would say to us "You don't live in Israel, you live in Gan Eden." (Garden of Eden). Yes, in many ways we did. We were Israel's first line of defense against any invasion from the South or West but it was all worth it even though it meant that every able bodied adult had to take their turn at guard duty and of course as Israelis we all served in the reserves. In order to move to Yamit there were certain fundamental requirements: 1. At least one adult member of the family had to have as a minimum Bachelor's Degree. 2. Proof of employment was required by the Ministry of Housing (Misrad HaShikun) 3. The family had to purchase their home. Rentals were not allowed. Mortgages were made available, payments made annually by post dated check for one-month increments. 4. All rights to any type of social welfare payments had to be relinquished, including unemployment benefits. 5. All taxes had to be maintained in a current status. Leaving Yamit was one of the saddest days of my life. It was a great place to live, work and raise children.

tragedy

I removed tragedy, because radicals commiting suicide is not a tragedy.--90.135.251.219 (talk) 13:22, 6 February 2008 (UTC)

From Noam Chomsky Questions on Israel:

In Feb. 1971, Gunnar Jarring drew up a specific plan, which he submitted to Egypt and Israel. It called for full peace between Egypt and Israel in return for Israeli withdrawal to the internationally-recognized border (the pre-June 1967 border). President Sadat of Egypt accepted it without qualification. Israel considered it, recognized it to be a genuine peace offer (as Rabin's memoirs and much other evidence makes clear; note that Rabin's objections, as illustrated in the comments you quote, were tactical, not substantive). In internal discussion, it was recognized that if Israel accepted the offer there could be peace, but at the cost of territorial expansion into the Sinai, which was a high priority for the then-governing Israeli labor Party. Israel therefore decided to reject Jarring's offer, stating that it would not withdraw to the pre-June 1967 border. That effectively concluded Jarring's mission.

Israel then proceeded with its plans to settle northeastern Sinai (the "Galili Protocols"), brutally expelling 10,000 farmers and Bedouins, driving them into the desert, destroying their villages, mosques, cemeteries,..., and proceeding to build the all-Jewish city of Yamit. This was one of Sharon's major atrocities (carried out, like many of his other crimes, under the leadership of the Labor government). Sadat warned that "Yamit means war," and when the US and Israel dismissed him with contempt, did finally go to war in 1973 -- not an attack on Israel, as claimed in much propaganda, but on his own territory conquered by Israel and held with US backing after he had offered a full peace treaty, with no conditions.