Pollard Urging Public Support of Protest Tent for Gush Katif
Justice4JP Release - December 2, 2005

Jonathan Pollard sent his wife, Esther, [12/1/05] to visit the Gush Katif
Protest Tent set up outside of the Supreme Court Building in Jerusalem. She
was accompanied by Eleonora Shiffrin, J4JP Spokesperson for the Russian
Speaking Community. They met and spoke with the Protest Tent's organizers,
who stressed the unbearable circumstances in which the Gush Katif evacuees
are trapped. The lack of funding and financial compensation, lack of
apropariate housing, lack of employment, lack of emotional support, in
addition to the trauma of being uprooted and watching their homes and
communities destroyed, has created new Jewish refugees carrying an
unbearable burden of suffering. They should not have to bear it alone!

The Pollards urge everyone to visit the Protest Tent, and to spend some time
there. A press conference will be held there next Monday early in the
afternoon, and the more people who are there, the better.

Below is a release (courtesy of Women in Green) originally circulated by
English Orange, which details some of the least known and most compelling
facts about the expulsion. Every point below is a reason why everyone must
come and show their support. The Tent Protesters sit all day, every day,
into the evening.

English Orange - November 28, 2005, Cheshvan 26,

Are you capable of sitting silently and patiently another day?

100 DAYS SINCE THE EXPULSION, AND THERE IS STILL NO SOLUTION FOR THE TRUE
ZIONIST PIONEERS WHO SETTLED GUSH KATIF!

-100 days later: 426 Families still living in hotels and their possessions
are held in an army base.
Uprooted in one week, abandoned already for 3 months.

-approx.1700 families lost their homes this past summer

-about 10,000 people were ripped out of their homes and lives in seven days

-100 days have elapsed since the forceful relocation

-2200 people are currently unemployed

-50% of the 'caravillas' promised by the Sel"a Authority are still not ready

-65% of the uprooted remain in "immediate solution" (temporary) quarters
intended for the first week only

-105 families presently live in tents

-dozens of youth have yet to find suitable educational solutions

-approximately 700 families live in various temporary quarters such as
caravillas, caravans and other temporary structures

-size of a caravilla is between 60 to 120 square meters. (646 sq. ft. to 130
sq. feet)

-some families with 12 members are housed in a single caravilla

-$500 is the average rental fee for a caravilla

-caravillas can hold, at best, up to 50% of the family's belongings

-4 containers holding entire family possessions have totally disappeared

-4 homes were totally destroyed together with the house contents

-the majority of the families are not permitted access to their storage
containers and have to buy new basic supplies to the amount of tens of
thousands of shekels

-over the summer some expensive furniture was irreparably damaged by the
extreme temperatures without proper storage conditions.

-more than 300 agricultural farms were wiped off the face of the earth

-only 20 have been relocated

- 0 residents received the promised severance pay

-merely 13% were deemed eligible to receive a temporary advance of living
allowance.

-families that were living in rented homes in Gush Katif/Northern Shomron,
according to the expulsion-reparation law are NOT eligible for any monetary
assistance

-Singles living in the expelled areas are not eligible for any reparations

-about 600 families are today living in hotel rooms and educational
institutions

-the hotel dwellers are not entitled to basic rights like hosting guests in
their rooms, internet access, telephone use...

-3 washing machines are available for the use of the Moshav Katif people and
3 washing machines are allocated for Netzer Chazani people (several hundred
people!)

-2 telephone lines on average available for the use of the refugees in the
various hotels. At some hotel no personal calls are allowed at all

-2 parents + 3 children are housed in a single room in many of the hotels

-35% of the evacuees are still living in hotels

-hundreds of children above age 7 have started wetting their beds (nearly
45% of all children)

-many heart attacks have occurred as a result of the expulsion crisis

-many suicide attempts as a result of the disengagement

-4 girls between ages 16-19 are in a locked hospital ward because of their
extreme emotional state

-10 youth are in clinical depression and do not leave their rooms

-thousands of children who returned to the classrooms have dramatically
dropped their grades

-families are still charged to pay back mortgages on their non-existent
houses

-Homesh expellees have been billed by the electric company for cutting off
the electricity

-Only within the past two weeks has the disengagement authority been willing
to give recognition to communities rather than to individuals

-about 400 families have gone off on their own, spread throughout the
country, cut off from their communities and their support system

-Neveh Dekalim alone has been forced to split up into 13 different locations
around the country against their explicit request to remain together, long
before the expulsion.

-Evacuation of the Northern Shomron communities allows for a territorial
contiguity of the Arabs from Schem (Nablus) through to Jenin, a distance of
tens of kilometers.

-28% of Israel's land has, in effect, been abandoned by her citizens

-3000 coats intended for the evacuees were stolen from the warehouses.

-Ministry of Education does not subsidize the temporary schools that have
been established around the country.

-Students who missed the summer exams are being barred from taking make-up
exams.

-75% of the Expellees are still without jobs

-0 refugees have been moved of their own free will

-25 thriving and flourishing communities have been totally wiped out

-38 bodies were removed from their graves. Their families had to go through
the trauma of reburial and sitting Shiva AGAIN

-Synagogues were destroyed

-ten thousand citizens are thrown out of their homes, without their
possessions, ignored totally by the government

-There has been NOT one solution for any single citizen!!!

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Please enter the following links into your internet address bar to read the
articles.

http://www.israelnationalnews.com/news.php3?id=93883

Sit-In Strike Begins in Jerusalem
16:23 Nov 29, '05 / 27 Cheshvan 5766
By Hillel Fendel

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http://www.israelnationalnews.com/news.php3?id=93800

Finding Jobs for People Without Homes

15:35 Nov 28, '05 / 26 Cheshvan 5766
By Hillel Fendel

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http://www.israelnationalnews.com/article.php3?id=5796

I Have the Right to Be Unforgiving

by Roberta Feinstein Bienenfeld
November 25, 2005
**************************************

NEW update -Nov 25, 2005 Kfar Darom will not be moving to Ashkelon to the
building you wrote about. After lies, delays, and more lies and delays, the
banks have now refused to sign - causing yet a new delay. Kfar Darom voted
yesterday to cancel the whole plan. They will have another meeting tomorrow
to decide on a positive course of action, after 3 months of being played
with by the government and Sela, with empty promises. We pray for them and
all the expellees that they find the strength to remain together until a
solution is found for them by the bodies which caused them to have a problem
in the first place.

Take care, and Besorot Tovot

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IMPORTANT CONTACT NUMBERS AND WEBSITES

LeMaan Acheinu - assistance and counseling: 02-5090111,
fax: 025090110 lemanahai@walla.com (hours-9:00 to 23:00)

Legal Aid Chonenu- 1-599-504-020

Justice Forum- (till 5:00 pm) 02 5022202

Legal assistance- 08-971-6676 (till 7:00 pm) Law office experienced in the
laws and dealing with the disengagement authority.

Employment- 08-6727703 (job offers and placement)

JobKatif website- http://www.jobkatif.org.il

Modiin Bulletin Board-http://www.modiin.org (assistance)

Paamonim-Financial Advice and Assistance-1-800-351-012 or 02-9975577

Lev Achim- 1-800-550-300 (National Education Hotline)

Open Line- Hotline for emotional and faith issues 02-6518388

Aliyat HaNoar- 036898738

Minhelet Selah, Jerusalem- 02-531-1144, 88 Northern area- 04-624 7393
Southern area- 086610050

Shame Page- http://www.shame.co.il