Gaza first appears in the Tanach as a Philistine city, the site of Samson's dramatic death. Jews finally
conquered it in the Hasmonean era, and continued to live there. Notable residents include Dunash Ibn
Labrat, and Nathan of Gaza, advisor to false messiah Shabtai
Zvi. Gaza is within the boundaries of Shevet Yehuda in Biblical
Israel (see Genesis
15, Joshua
15:47, Kings
15:47 and Judges
1:18) and
therefore some have argued that there is a Halachic requirement to live
in this land. The earliest settlement of the area is by Avraham and Yitzhak, both of whom lived in the Gerar area of Gaza. In the fourth
century Gaza was the primary Jewish port of Israel for international
trade and commerce.
Great medieval rabbis such as Rabbi Yisrael Najara,
author of Kah Ribon Olam, the popular Shabbat song, and renowned Mekubal
Rabbi Avraham Azoulai, were rabbanim in Gaza Jewish communities.
The periodic removal of
Jews from Gaza goes back at least to the Romans in
61 CE,
followed much later by the Crusaders,
Napoleon, the Ottoman
Turks, the British and
the contemporary Egyptians. However, Jews
definitely lived in Gaza throughout the centuries,
with a stronger presence in the nineteenth
and early twentieth centuries.
Jews were
present in Gaza until 1929, when they were
forced to leave the area due to violent riots against
them by the Arabs. Following these riots,
and the death of nearly 135 Jews in all,
the British prohibited Jews from living in
Gaza to quell tension and appease the Arabs.
Some Jews returned, however, and, in 1946, kibbutz Kfar
Darom was established to prevent the British
from separating the Negev from the Jewish
state.
The United
Nations 1947 partition
plan allotted the
coastal strip from Yavneh to Rafiah on the
Egyptian border to be an Arab state. In
Israel's war
for independence, most Arab inhabitants
in this region fled or were expelled, settling
around Gaza City. Israeli forces conquered
Gaza, and proceeded south to El-Arish, but
subsequently gave control of the area to Egypt in negotiations, keeping Ashdod and Ashkelon. In 1956, Israel went to war with Egypt, conquered Gaza again, only to return
it again.
With the 1967 Six
Day War, Israeli forces reentered
Gaza and captured it. During the war, Israel
had no idea what it would do with the territory.
Eshkol called it “a bone stuck in
our throats.”1
The initial settlements
were established by the Labor
government in the early 1970s. The
first was Kfar Darom, which was originally
established in 1946, and reformed
in 1970. In 1981, as part
of a peace
treaty with Egypt,
the last settlements of the Sinai were
destroyed, and some Jews moved to the
Gaza area. Israeli settlers reside
in 18 percent of the 363 square kilometer
area. They are sparsely settled in the
area as compared to the density of the
Palestinian regions in the Gaza Strip.
There are twenty-one settlements
in Gaza. The most populated Gush Katif area
contains some thirty synagogues plus
Yeshivat Torat Hachim with 200 students,
the Hesder Yeshiva with 150 students, the
Mechina in Atzmona with 200 students, Yeshivot
in Netzarim and Kfar Darom, 6 Kollelim, a
Medrasha for girls in Neve Dekalim and more.
All of the settlements have their own schools,
seminaries, stores, and doctors.
The largest group
of settlements is the Katif bloc, located
along the southern Gaza coastline. These
settlements block access to the coast from
the major Palestinian cities of Khan Yunis
and Rafah and cement Israeli control on
the Egypt-Gaza border. Another group of settlements
(comprising Elei Sinai, Dugit, and Nisanit)
are located along Gaza's northern border
with Israel, expanding the Israeli presence
from the city of Ashkelon (inside Israel)
to the edges of Gaza City (the Erez Industrial
zone is part of this bloc). Netzarim, Kfar
Darom, and Morag are strategically located
in the heart of the Gaza Strip (along a north-south
axis), creating a framework for Israeli control
of the area and its main transportation route,
and facilitating Israel's ability to divide
the Gaza Strip into separate areas and isolate
each area's inhabitants. In addition, the settlements
control prime agricultural land, some of
the area's main aquifers, and approximately
one-third of the total Gaza coastline.
The Gaza settlements range
from religious communities (Atzmona, Bedolah,
Gadid, Ganei Tal, Gan Or, Katif, Kfar Darom,
Morag, Netzarim, Netzer Hazani, and Neve
Dekalim) to non-religious communities (Dugit,
Elei Sinai, Kfar Yam), to mixed communities
(Nisanit, Pe'at Sade, and Rafiah Yam). Their
economies are generally based on agriculture
(with many classified as “moshavim” or cooperative agricultural villages), with
some local industry (Neve Dekalim and Katif)
and tourist facilities (Dugit, Katif bloc).
One settlement, Gadid, has a large French
population and maintains an absorption center
for new immigrants from France. The isolated
location of the Gush Katif bloc attracts
some of the most ideologically-motivated
members of the Gaza settlement community.
Residents of the northern bloc (Elei Sinai,
Nisanit, and Dugit) are physically separated
from the rest of the Gaza settlers (to reach
the other settlements they must travel into
Israel, then re-enter Gaza, through another
entrance point) and their social and economic
lives are more closely linked to Israel than
other settlers, with many of the residents
working and studying inside Israel.
Jews and Muslims coexisted
for more than a decade but tension rose,
and in 1987, a Jewish shopper in a Gazan
market was stabbed to death. The next day
an Israeli truck accidentally killed four
Arabs, sparking the first riots of what would
become the first intifada.
A brief period of calm followed the Oslo
agreements as Israel agreed to withdraw
from parts of the Gaza Strip. Ultimately, the Palestinian
Authority assumed control over about 80
percent of the area, but an escalation of violence,
especially after September 2000, led Israel
to impose stricter measures on Palestinians
in the area, and to engage in frequent military
operations to prevent terrorist attacks against
soldiers and Jews living in the Gaza settlements
as well as infiltrations to attack targets
inside Israel.
On August 17, 2005, Israel
began to evacuate all the
Jews from Gaza. It was expected to take several
weeks, but took less than one. Israel and
the Palestinians agreed the buildings would
be razed and the army began that process
after the residents left.
A total
of 1,700 families were uprooted at a cost of
nearly $900 million. This includes 166
Israeli farmers who produce $120 million
in flowers and produce. Approximately 15
percent of Israel's agricultural exports
originate in Gaza, including 60 percent
of its cherry tomato and herb exports.
Israel will also lose 70 percent of all
its organic produce, which also is grown
in Gaza.
Since the disengagement process
was completed, no Jews have been present in the
Gaza Strip.