Have you built a house? We purchased a house in Elon Moreh and finished its second story. We are also part of the K’far Darom/Shavei Darom community which, due to extreme bureaucracy on the part of the government, has not yet begun permanent housing construction.
What happened to your community? K’far Darom has split into three groups. K’far Darom/Shavei Darom is building a community seven-minute’s drive away from Netivot, they hope to have about 500 families. The families are still in caravillas and home construction has not yet begun. K’far Darom’s school, named after the Tanna Rabi Eliezer ben Yitzchak, “a man of K’far Darom” (Sotah 20b) is located there; it moved with us from K’far Darom to Be’er Sheva, then to Ashkelon, and G-d willing won’t be in Shavei Darom very long before it returns to K’far Darom. The group was forced to fight its way through an immense amount of bureaucracy and suffer having plans for three locations scrapped by the government, after wasting much time in deliberations.
Another group, K’far Darom/Neta, is currently in Shomriya, in caravillas and is planning to join with expellees from Tel Katifa in building a new community in the Lachish region.
Of the remaining third, virtually all have either joined other expellee communities – Netzer Hazani/Avnei Eitan in the Golan Heights, and Yated/Atzmona in the southern Negev – or are living in Yehuda and Shomron. K’far Darom’s Kollel Dayanut is now in Beit Haggai, along with a few other families from K’far Darom. Other families are in Karnei Shomron, Kedumim, Kochav HaShachar, Neriya and Haresha.
Something good that’s happened since: On a personal level our daughter Devora, named after the prophetess who sat under a palm tree, like the ones we miss so much, was born. On a more communal level, although K’far Darom has partially dispersed, we have remained in contact with one another, refusing to let the Expulsion break friendships.
What do you wish yourselves? Return to Gush Katif and to all parts of Israel not currently under Jewish control.
