Dalyat el-Carmel: Impressive Rally in Support of Gush Katif

Text and photography: Eran Sternberg, Spokesman, Gaza Shore Regional Council

The rally, whose slogans were “Blood Brothers” and “Druzes Will Not Expel Jews”, was attended by MK Ayyub Qara, Druze notables, Rabbi Yigal Kaminetsky and other Gush Katif residents, in addition to activists from Haifa and members of the Likud Party Center from the north of the country.

A minor unpleasant incident occurred at the rally when MK Ehud Yatom had a verbal altercation with some Likud activists from the north of Israel about disobedience to a patently illegal order. We in Gush Katif immediately condemned these remarks officially in the media, as follows: “We in Gush Katif condemn the harsh words with which MK Ehud Yatom was greeted in Dalyat el-Carmel by some members of the Likud Party in Haifa. We continue to consider MK Yatom as one of the leaders in the fight against expulsion”). But all in all the rally was held in a spirit of unity and solidarity.

Many of the Druze declared at the rally that they did not volunteer for service in the IDF in order to become “subcontractors” for Jews in their internal fights, and called on Sharon not to involve them in carrying out his catastrophic policies, which have nothing to do with the close alliance between Jews and Druze.

Translated by: S. Michael Guggenheimer