The Open Wound of Gush Katif, By Nadav Shragai
For context and for pictures, click here, here and here
When Makor Rishon’s photographer, Miri Tzahi, saw the photo of First Lieutenant Amihai Merhavia, who was killed in the battle of Bint Jbail, it jogged something in her journalist’s memory. She thought she had seen this face before.
Tzahi, who is about publish the album, “Katif – Nine days in Av,” featuring hundreds of photos of the “days of the expulsion,” searched through her computer archive and found a series of photos from around four years ago, showing Merhavia during the violent evacuation of Havat Gilad (Gilad Farm) in Samaria.
The people of Gush Katif, much like Tzahi, were until a few weeks ago occupied by the effort to memorialize Gush Katif, but then the war came along and confused everything. It is one thing to refer to the Israel Defense Forces during normal times as the “army of expulsion” and to refer to Dan Halutz as the “chief of staff of expulsion,” and it is something totally different to continue doing so in time of war.
In the past weeks, many in the Gush Katif community and the national-religious camp have had to redefine, or at least update, their relationship with the state and with the IDF, with whom they have been on bad terms for a long time. They do not hide their hope that the reconciliation will be two-sided, that the convergence plan will be reassessed, that the “we told you so” will be seen not only as a political gripe, but also pertinent to the heart of the matter, and that level of empathy for them will again rise.
There is more to the story about Amihai Merhavia.
To read the full report, click The Open Wound of Gush Katif