'Nothing will make me leave'
2005-05-12 23:54
Michael Blum
Gaza Strip - An Israeli mother insists that neither the Israeli government nor Palestinians will drive her out of her Gaza home as she shows off the mortar shell that left her confined to a wheelchair.
The 40-year-old was given up for dead in November 2001 when the Palestinian mortar shell landed in the kitchen of her house in Kfar Darom, one of the 21 settlements in Gaza, which were due to be evacuated by soldiers this summer.
However, after months of treatment and physiotherapy, Barat not only began rebuilding her life, but also gave birth to her eighth child.
The joy of that day, however, was dimmed by a dramatic announcement by Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon that he planned to uproot all 8 000 settlers from the Gaza Strip as part of a project known as disengagement.
Increasing long-term security
Sharon, who for years was seen as the ultimate champion of the settler movement, argued that exiting Gaza on its own terms would allow Israel to increase its long-term security and keep hold of parts of the West Bank, where the vast majority of the 245&nbps;000 Israeli settlers lived.
It was an argument Barat refused to accept, believing that it amounted to an act of surrender that the Palestinians would interpret as a sign of weakness.
She said in reference to the main bloc of settlements in southern Gaza: "More than 5 000 mortar shells have been fired at us in Gush Katif.
"They have landed in the kitchen, in the children's room and smashed the windows of the car."
Protection from God
She attributed the fact that none of her family had been killed to "protection from God".
Barat attended the official opening of a new synagogue in Kfar Darom on Thursday, the 57th birthday of the state of Israel.
Her patriotism was undiminished, with her dining room table bedecked with a giant blue and white Israeli flag.
But, she feels nothing but contempt for Sharon, who ironically laid the synagogue's foundation stone, a decade ago.
"It's obvious that the government is giving in to terrorism. This plan represents a danger to the future of the state of Israel.
"The army knows this even if the politicians say otherwise - they just sit on their chairs."
Sharon's 'answer to terrorism'
Barat named her son Amihai Israel, Hebrew for "the nation of Israel lives".
She said: "The day my child was born was the day that Sharon first spoke about disengagement. The answer to terrorism from Sharon is to get out of here.
My answer is that we are proud and we can win."
"We have no other place to go and we will do everything to stay here."
The Gaza Strip is also home to about 1.3 million Palestinians, making it one of the most overpopulated and impoverished parts of the world.
- SAPA