For the long list of apologies that the State of Israel will need to seek from its citizens at the end of this war, I request to include a forgiveness request from a public that has been somewhat forgotten here: the evacuees of Gush Katif, their descendants, and their families. Some of them are currently taking part in the war, including in areas that were once their home; their heart wrench seeing what they have become. Few are already wearing the orange ribbons became the symbol of the protest against the 2005 uprooting of the settlements as part of the 2005 Disengagement Plan.
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There is practically zero willingness to reestablish the settlements but at the very least, we should all ask the former residents for forgiveness.
Everyone who had a hand in that evacuation is this uprooting; anyone who initiated, supported, executed, or assisted in forcibly evicting 10,000 people from their homes in Gush Katif and northern Samaria, in a cruel fashion and without true reason or purpose. Those decision-makers are among those who have to ask for forgiveness. Then-Prime Minister Ariel Sharon is no longer with us, but his "Ranch Forum" members and his sons Benjamin Netanyahu, Tzipi Livni, and Shaul Mofaz are still around.
The forgiveness request also extends to the Supreme Court justices who did not bother to come to Gush Katif and relied on security experts appointed by the state, "since that has been the court's position since its establishment." They rendered their ruling on the eviction after automatically assuming that such plans "improve the security situation" because "evacuation reduces the Palestinians' desire to harm the Israeli population."
The media also has to ask for forgiveness, having treated Sharon with kid gloves and allowed him to turn a flourishing agricultural land and a whole world of communities, synagogues, and educational institutions into ruins. To that list, one must add the top echelons of the IDF and the Shin Bet, who refused to publicly come out and say what they were whispering behind closed doors. We must also seek the forgiveness of doomsayers, who were condemned as delusional and anti-peace because they warned that missiles from Gaza would reach Sderot, Ashkelon, Ashdod, and Beersheba.
Those who came up with the Disengagement Plan and its supporters have to ask for forgiveness, also because they promised to "hit the terrorists hard" after the first rocket fell, only to eventually settle for grumbling about the moral and international constraints that prevented them from doing so. For years, they abandoned the south until the Palestinian terrorists massacred the southern residents on October 7.
They should ask for forgiveness for using the word democracy in vain and helping Sharon deceive the Likud party members by reneging on his promise to respect their decision when it became clear that their opinion did not match his. They should seek forgiveness from the thousands who paid a high price in body, soul, and money because of arrogance and cruelty. Forgiveness from the evacuees, the salt of the earth who never stole land from anyone and who turned the desolate sands into agricultural wonders at the behest of the State of Israel.
Ask forgiveness from those who swore to "win with love"; who held hope and worked the land until the last moment; who did not use muscle against the soldiers; who continued to enlist in the IDF and pay the heavy price even after being expelled from their homes because they understood that the country – the national home of the Jewish people – is greater than any mistaken and confused government. Forgiveness from them is the minimum required."
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