Israeli government plans to demolish synagogues used by thousands of Jews in Gaza Strip
COUNTDOWN / Will settler synagogues face the bulldozer's blade?

By Bradley Burston, Haaretz Correspondent
http://www.haaretz.com/
Wed., April 27, 2005 Nisan 18, 5765

THE RUMOR MILL - TUESDAY, 26 APRIL

One of the most emotionally charged issues of the disengagement plan, particularly for the Jewishly observant communities of most Gaza settlements, is the fate of the synagogues and cemeteries of the enclaves slated for evacuation.

The sensitivity of the issue has only grown in the wake of a government decision to save some $25 million and skirt international criticism by leaving the settlers' homes intact. This despite fears that terrorists may move into homes left behind by the families of their victims.

Until this week, senior government officials maintained that the synagogues in the 21 Gaza and four northern West Bank settlements to be evacuated would be dismantled and rebuilt in the evacuees' new communities within Israel.

On Monday, however, a senior defense ministry official told Army Radio that there was "no practical possibility" of taking apart the houses of worship and moving them.

As an alternative, the ministry planned to salvage one wall of each synagogue to serve as a part of new synagogues to be built for the evacuees in Israel, the radio reported. Memorial wall plaques, Torah arks, paneling and other elements would also be salvaged re-installation in the new structures.

Concern deepened on Tuesday, when a defense official told Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper that although a final decision is still days away, "Israel will have no choice but to destroy most of the synagogues and ritual baths in the settlements slated to be evacuated, to avoid the possibility of Palestinians desecrating them."

No simple moves

No decision taken by the Defense Ministry will be an easy one. In the Gaza Strip alone, officials face the following challenges.

LARGE SYNAGOGUES - In Gaza's central settlement-town of Neve Dekalim, there are three major synagogues, each of which can hold 1,000 worshippers.

There are also seven other large synagogue structures in Gaza enclaves.

COMMUNITY SYNAGOGUES AND YESHIVAS - There are more than 20 other synagogues in communities and yeshiva seminaries in the Strip. A minority, including those built in caravans, are small and self-contained enough to be moved whole, and these will likely be transported to Israel in any event.

RITUAL BATHS - There are a total of 22 ritual baths in the Gaza settlements. Most may be relatively easily transported. Others are structures of relatively large scale and heavy construction which included excavation, and they are unlikely to be moved.

CEMETERIES - There are a total of 48 Jewish graves in the Gaza Strip. Sources in the IDF Rabbinate said Tuesday that it would take about a week for the graves to be exhumed for reburial in Israel.

At present, the plan is for the process to begin only after the last settlers have been evacuated.

In the major settlement bloc of Gush Katif, the news of the possible demolitions was met with incredulity and anxious defiance.

"This is something that the human mind cannot fathom, I simply cannot believe that a Jewish government is prepared to demolish synagogues," said prominent Gaza Rabbi Yosef Elnikaveh.

Should the disengagement take place, "the government must find a way to transport the synagogues," he said, adding that he believed that there were ways to dismantle and rebuild the existing structures, even the largest of them.

He noted that the present yeshiva in Neve Dekalim was originally located in the northern Sinai settlement city of Yamit, which was evacuated in 1982 by then-defense minister Ariel Sharon under the terms of the 1979 Israeli-Egyptian peace treaty.

The yeshiva was successfully dismantled and rebuilt in the Gaza settlement, which now has a population of some 1,500.

In any event, Rabbi Elnikaveh stressed, the option of demolishing synagogues made no rational sense.

"There is a mosque that faces Neve Dekalim, from which they have fired at us for years now, and the government of Israel did not destroy that mosque, even though they were shooting from it. What logic is there in leaving a mosque that radiates murder, and at the same time destroying synagogues? I simply don't understand this."

"Moreover, does it seem rational that a Jewish government would demolish a synagogue?" asked Rabbi Elnikaveh. "Where can it derive permission for such an act? When a synagogue is decrated in France, the entire Jewish world is up in arms.

"In all of Jewish history, it has never happened that Jews destroyed a synagogue."

"If, heaven forbid, this takes place, I will sit on the ground and weep as though it were Tisha B'Av and it was the destruction of the Holy Temple."
- posted by Izak @ 10:40 PM