Sixteen years have passed since Israel's 2005 disengagement from the Gaza Strip, and to mark the occasion, the Gush Katif Heritage Center is hosting a conference in Jerusalem.
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The conference, to be held at the Menachem Begin Heritage Center, will include a documentary theater production by spoken word artist Zvia Margaliot based upon texts written during the disengagement.
One portion of the performance centers on a dialogue between an IDF soldier's mental checklist in preparation for the disengagement and a speech delivered by a resident of Neve Dekalim to prepare his friends for the nonviolent struggle against the community's eviction.
"I am not from Gush Katif, I live in Jerusalem. But like every other national religious person, I was involved in the struggle against the disengagement. Nevertheless, until I had kids, I wasn't qualified to understand what they went through over there, the abyss people reached," Margaliot said.
Margaliot, who has competed in poetry slam competitions, said: "Four years ago, the Gush Katif Center contacted me, and I did a spoken-word piece for them about the disengagement. Later, I proposed documentary theater. It has power. Three pieces I wrote and directed will be shown at the conference. One of them is based on the personal diary of an 18-year-old young woman who documented her emotions during the disengagement."
Margaliot said it was emotionally difficult to read the stories of people who were forced to leave their homes.
"This is a story that has influence even 16 years later," she said. "Families have fallen apart, some people became ill, got divorced. I also know people who say they lost their sanity. It's important to me, through this performance, to expose the influence the disengagement had on people, still today. The lack of trust in the judicial system among members of this public is the result of the disengagement. There are all kinds of things that need to be talked about," she said.
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