Expelled Gaza Jews stuck in 'temporary' housing

Gush Katif home prior to Israeli withdrawal

TEL AVIV – The majority of Jewish residents of the Gaza Strip evacuated by Israel 17 months ago still have not received full compensation promised to them by the Israeli government and are preparing to make small trailers – which were supposed to be temporary living quarters – into permanent homes, according to a report released this month.

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"It is now clear that the caravan sites (which we were told was temporary until the government found permanent residences) will be home for the uprooted Gaza residents for at least five years," stated a report by the Gush Katif Committee, the main humanitarian organization representing the Gaza Jewish refugees.

"The situation is extremely grave," said Dror Vanunu, a former Gaza resident and the international coordinator for the Gush Katif Committee. "There is no solution in sight."

Israel in August 2005 evacuated its nearly 10,000 Jewish citizens from Gaza's Gush Katif slate of Jewish communities. Successive Israeli governments over the years had urged thousands of Israelis to move to Gaza and build communities there. Israel pledged the expelled residents compensation packages and new permanent communities.

Prior to the Gaza evacuation, the vast majority of Gush Katif residents lived in large homes in landscaped communities. Israel promised to find the uprooted Katif Jews permanent housing solutions within two years.

But the Gush Katif Committee report states some 97 percent out of the 1,667 evacuated families still live in temporary housing, mostly in the Israeli Negev desert in small, government-built prefabricated "trailer villas." Residents there live in crowded conditions, in many cases lacking enough bedroom space to accommodate their families. Some families used shipping containers as improvised additional bedroom space.

"You can punch through my wall," a resident of Nitzan, the largest Gush Katif trailer community, told WND. "My friends come to visit me in coffee shops because there is not enough room in my living room for them to be comfortable."

The committee report states the trailer residents are preparing for a stay of a least five years.

Lior Kalfa, chairman of the committee, said: "It won't be long before this (trailer community) becomes a permanent community, so the people here are trying to create a more permanent reality."

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Shipping containers have been used to help house uprooted Gaza refugees

Prior to the August 2005 evacuation, the Gush Katif unemployment rate was less than 1 percent. Many Gaza Jewish residents were farmers, tending to the area's famous, technologically advanced greenhouses that supplied Israel with much of its produce. The Israeli government pledged it would provide new land to the uprooted Katif farmers.

The committee report states only 33 out of 400 farmers have received farm land from Israel's Ministry of Agriculture, and only a small number of those have been able to resume farming at the new locations due to agricultural difficulties.

"The land is much different here than what Gush Katif farmers are used to," explained Anita Tucker, one of the pioneer farmers of Katif. "Most of the techniques used in the greenhouses in Gaza were specific to the land and environment. Now farmers will have to develop new ways for these new lands and the different kind of soil."

The report states some 37 percent of the Gush Katif evacuees are still unemployed and that some 400 people aged 50 and over have given up looking for work.

A previous report detailed many of the Jewish children expelled from Gaza suffer from a full range of traumatic and post-traumatic stress symptoms, including anxiety, depression, regressive behavior, general behavioral problems, lack of concentration and difficulty coping with new or challenging situations.

The Forum for Israel, a nonprofit group also working with Gush Katif refugees, recently outlined for the Knesset major problems facing Gush Katif refugee teenagers. The group pointed to an elevation in suicidal thoughts and eating disorders. The report also said 30 percent of former Gush Katif teens either failed to integrate to new schools or failed their final exams.

Social workers said the expelled youths have been finding it difficult to develop relationships and increasingly have been abusing alcohol and drugs. Some have been admitted to psychiatric hospitals.

Yet many refugee trailer sites lack youth counselors and activity centers. Budgets for youth programs expired last year.

"The situation is extremely grave," said Vanunu. "It is at emergency status in many cases."

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