Encounter: Secular support for Gush Katif

Kfir Sharar didn't know Tali Hatuel and her four young children, but their murder by a terrorist in May in the Gaza Strip spurred the 25-year-old economics student into action.

As a secular, fun-loving Israeli, Sharar admits that he doesn't exactly fit the stereotype of an activist. Sitting near Jerusalem's Central Bus Station, with sunglasses hanging from his half-opened button-down black shirt, Sharar said he would rather be out dancing or telling a woman he loves her than getting ready to stand in the human chain that ran from Gush Katif to the Western Wall on Sunday.

But it would be irresponsible not to participate in an action that could prevent leaders from making a terrible blunder, said Sharar, who organized 40 other secular young adults to join him in the human chain.

As a soldier in the IDF, said Sharar, "I saw a lot of terrible things. I lost three of my friends. I had no fear, no emotions. I put a wall inside my heart."

But something inside him snapped when he read about the Hatuel family. He imagined how the terrorist gunned them down as Tali was driving.

"For the first time I started to cry."
On a whim, he and a friend drove down to Gush Katif, to pay Tali's husband David a shiva call. "Without thinking about the political implications I knew I had to go down there," said Sharar.
He was struck by how noble and strong David Hatuel seemed. "I felt I was receiving power from him. It shows you what kind of people live there."
When Hatuel shook their hands and thanked them for coming, it dawned on Sharar that he could make a difference.

"I tried to bring some comfort and the whole thing snowballed," said Sharar. Now, about every two weeks he brings a growing group of secular Israelis to Gush Katif to show their support.
Each time they go, at first people give them odd looks.

"When they see me, they think I'm against them. They think I'm from Peace Now or that I got lost on my way to Eilat," said Sharar.

He said that if the disengagement plan was being carried out as part of an agreement that would stop the murder of innocent Israelis he might support it. But to do it unilaterally is illogical, he said.

The same argument for Jews leaving the Gaza Strip can be used to delegitimize their presence in Judea and Samaria or even Tel Aviv.

"In Europe, if they transferred one Jewish community we would call it anti-Semitism," said Sharar. To do it ourselves, he said, is national suicide.

At the Western Wall, upon completion of the event, David Hatuel said he was comforted by the show of strength and unity by Israelis from all over the country.

Tali Hatuel's sister from her place in the chain told Channel 1, "I'm standing here because it's clear to me that Tali would have stood here. Unfortunately she can't, but I can."

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