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A special plenum memorial session was held in Knesset to mark two years since the death of former PM, Ariel Sharon, who was the architect behind the so-called “Disengagement Plan”, the expulsion of Jews and uprooting of communities from Gaza and areas of the N. Shomron. Politicians continue to use the term “disengagement” in an effort to sanitize the operation that literally resulted in uprooting thousands of Jews from their homes, communities, cemeteries, shuls and batei medrashim, many still unsettle today, over a decade later.

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu recalled Sharon’s heroism in the battlefield during his career as an officer as well as mentioning the “serious mistake of the disengagement”.

Unlike Mr. Netanyahu, opposition leader Yitzchak Herzog reflected back on the disengagement as an “achievement”, not an error, citing the demographic dangers facing Israel and the 1.5 million Palestinians in Gaza and the correct decision to cut Israel off from them.

(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)