Jewish Refugees Screwed

The whole world continues to wring its hand over plight the Palestinian "refugees" - oh the humiliation! Trillions of dollars, 15 million raised to buy the Greenhouses in Gaza so that the Palis would make a living, ridiculous amounts of aid from the UN, EU, US .................ugh. The Jews that were expelled from Gaza?

But not a word
not a penny
not a farling for the Gush Katif refugees...............anybody see fair and balanced here?

Landau: Likud to Debate Plight of Gush Katif Evictees

No democratic country should ever abandon its citizens like this,” stated MK Dr. Uzi Landau on Wednesday after viewing the conditions of Jews expelled from Gush Katif and northern Samaria.

Landau, who is running for the leadership of the Likud party, has called for the Likud Party to debate the issue in two weeks’ time at the opening of the Knesset’s winter session.

Click here to listen to an interview with Landau on IsraelNationalRadio's Eli Stutz and Yishai Fleisher Show, Thursday.

Two months after the expulsion, the former residents of Elei Sinai still have not found a communal housing solution for their community. At the moment, they are living in a tent camp at the Yad Mordechai junction, and Wednesday’s heavy rain caught them totally unprepared.

Sarita Maoz, spokesperson for the homeless evictees, told Israeli government radio that the community wrote Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to request an urgent meeting eight days before the rain began. Currently, the housing situation is being handled by “clerks,” according to Maoz. Since no forward progress is being made on a more permanent housing solution, Maoz believes Sharon must become personally involved. “Until now, we have not received any reply,” stated Maoz.

Meanwhile, expellees from the communities of Bedollach, Morag and Kfar Yam, who had been living at the Shirat Hayam Hotel in Ashkelon, were evicted from the hotel the day before the festival of Sukkot. Since then, they have been living in makeshift accommodations and are receiving meals from the soup kitchens in Sderot.

The Disengagement Authority asserts that the evictees have refused all suggested solutions, making negotiations impossible.

This is disgusting. The world can't get off Israel's case. I am sure you heard Bush and Abbas earlier today lamenting humilation. I am sick and tired of it. To the good people of Israel, I am sorry.

Tell American Jews about a disaster anywhere in the world and they rush to respond. Whether it was the tsunami in Southeast Asia last year, or the war in Kosovo, or the plight of the Vietnamese boat people, the Jewish community has always contributed resources way out of proportion to its numbers.

Last month the American Jewish people were presented with yet another horrific disaster. The response? Silence.

While Jews are falling over themselves in the rush to run collection drives for the victims of Hurricane Katrina and rightly so I have not yet heard of a single Jewish day school or synagogue raising money for our Israeli Jewish "disengagement" refugees. It is as if these Jewish victims wear a big red A and are being shunned as did adulterers in Colonial America. Why?

Are American Jews silent because they favored the "disengagement," believing it a step towards peace? Suppose it is (though I strongly doubt it): the fact is that the step was taken and it plunged thousands of Jews into abject chaos. The homes, workplaces, houses of worship and, for some, the graves of their loved ones, of more than 9000 were destroyed. These Jews have been thrust into substandard housing, most of them are suddenly unemployed, few children have this year's school supplies, and very few have received any of the promised compensation.

f the governments of both the U.S. and Israel planned to assist the disengagement refugees, even those who resisted the plan right up to the last minute, why not American Jews? And if the promises and plans have fallen by the wayside, why shouldn't American Jews (the wealthiest Jewish community in the world and in the history of the world) step in to the breach?

Continue sending relief to the Katrina victims, victims of the Pakistani earthquake.. It's the right thing, the Jewish thing, to do, to help a stranger in need. But stop shunning the Israeli disaster victims who are your own mishpocha. That's just plain wrong.

For information on how to assist the Israeli disaster victims email  lorilowenthalmarcus@gmail.com.Lori Lowenthal Marcus is a lawyer, radio news show co-host, and Israel advocate. She lives outside of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

 

And for American Jews who think government compensation and our help are rightly withheld from those who didnt sign on to the plan immediately, how about those who did? Perhaps you didnt realize that all who were expelled paid to have their own electricity, water and gas turned off; perhaps you didnt know that all had to pay their own moving expenses; perhaps you were unaware that all have to pay to have their belongings placed in storage while they await permanent housing B perhaps, the Israeli government has already told them, for as long as two years. And just maybe you haven= t heard that almost no one who is entitled to compensation has yet received a shekel of what they were promised.

Possibly many thought the Israeli government was covering the costs of relocating and helping to re-establish the lives of those who were being removed. Perhaps that was the intention. The calculation was based on the $2.2 billion Israel counted on receiving from the United States government, a strong backer of the plan.

But the U.S. government has informed Israel that in the wake of Katrina, Israel shouldn't even ask Congress for the $2.2 billion it was counting on to help cover the enormous costs of the A disengagement.Your tax dollars that were earmarked to help the Israeli government bear the costs of moving your brothers and sisters have already been diverted, appropriately, to help Americans in desperate need. Ironically, the Jewish community has already donated more than $1 billion to the Katrina funds. How many of the Jews who gave to Katrina gave to the Jews of Gush Katif?

Comments

[Lori Lowenthal Marcus]

Thanks so much for posting this! I continue to get negative responses to the idea of raising money for the disengaged displaced from almost all of the organized (I use the word lightly) Jewish entities.

Some of the paragraphs in the column as posted above are transposed. Paragraphs #5,6 and 7 should come after the final paragraph above. Still, you get the idea and what matters is the need for help.

Again, thanks.