Draft:Evacuation of the Yamit Region
Activists of the Gush Emunim movement trying to stop the evacuation, on the roof of one of the houses in Yamit City.
The evacuation of the Yamit region was carried out by Israel in April 1982 as part of a change in the border of the State of Israel and the transfer of control of the entire zone to Egypt, as part of the peace agreement between Israel and Egypt, which was signed three years earlier on March 26, 1979.
The Decision to Evacuate
In the peace agreement between Israel and Egypt, the State of Israel agreed to return control of the Sinai Peninsula to Egypt. As part of the agreement, the government decided to evacuate all residents of the Yamit region from their homes, and to demolish all existing buildings in the area, and at the same time, pay compensation to the residents.
Before the signing of the agreement in 1978, the representatives of the residents began to call on the Knesset not to give up Yamit as part of the agreements. On the other hand, voices arose that claimed that despite the high personal cost, they would not be an obstacle on the path to peace.
The Evacuation
Since 1981, before the evacuation began, most of the region's settlers left their settlements of their own accord, and most of the Yamit settlements were destroyed and evacuated. In April 1982, the evacuation of the rest of the Yamit region began, and especially the evacuation of Yamit City. On April 5, 1982, it was agreed that the opponents of the evacuation would be evacuated after Passover. On April 20, the evacuation was postponed due to it being Holocaust Memorial Day. On the same day, a spokesman for the Ministry of Defense said that the IDF would allow Israeli and foreign journalists to reach the Yamit region and cover the evacuation from there. On April 21, it was published in the Dvar newspaper that Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin would recommend the evacuation, and at the cabinet meeting held the day before, it was agreed that the evacuation would begin on Sunday, April 25, 1982. However, the evacuation began on April 22. Most of the evacuation was in Yamit City.
It is commonly viewed that April 23, 1982 was the pinnacle of the conflict over the evacuation, when members of the Gush Emunim movement barricaded themselves on the roof of one of the houses in the city. Soldiers who tried to reach the roof using a ladder encountered violence from the members of the movement, which included, among other things, throwing sand and physical force. When the soldiers came to the conclusion that it was necessary to act with more force, they used foam jets on those who barricaded themselves in. At one point, the person in charge of the evacuation, Major Haim Erez, fired a round of shots in the air in order to deter the evacuees and allow the evacuees to reach the roof of the building.
After the Evacuation
After the evacuation of the Yamit region, almost all the settlements that arose in the Sinai Peninsula were destroyed, a few settlements such as Ofira, were settled by the Egyptians.
Ruins of the city remain in the area where the city once stood. Visiting the Yamit ruins poses many difficulties from the side of the Egyptian authorities. Despite this, in 2005, then member of the Knesset, Tzachi Hanegbi, visited the area of the ruins. During the evacuation, Hanegbi, who was then a student and one of the leaders of the resistance movement for the withdrawal from Sinai, barricaded himself in a Yamit monument with other protesters. After the evacuation, the walls and floors of the houses were dismantled in their entirety and moved to Moshav Dekel, where they are to be found to this day.
The Yamit Hesder yeshiva that was evacuated from the city was re-established in the Neve Dekalim settlement in Gush Katif under a new name: Yeshivat Hesder Neve Dekalim. Following the implementation of the disengagement plan from Gaza in 2005, the yeshiva was evacuated for the second time and re-established in the city of Ashdod. In the new yeshiva building built in 2018, monuments were erected to mark the yeshivah in the Haval Yamit and Gush Katif.
In Moshav Dekal in the Western Negev, where many of the city's residents settled, a museum was established for the city and the settlements of the Yamit region.
Most of the evacuees of the Yamit region and the Israeli right claim, to this day, that the evacuation was not justified and did not contribute positively to the State of Israel.