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Yamit
Yamit (Hebrew: ימית) was an Israeli settlement in the northern part of the Sinai Peninsula with a population of about 2,500 people. Yamit was established during Israel's occupation of the peninsula from the end of the 1967 Six-Day War until that part of the Sinai was handed over to Egypt in April 1982, as part of the terms of the 1979 Egypt–Israel peace treaty. It was the largest Jewish town in Sinai. Prior to the return of the land to Egypt, all the homes were evacuated and bulldozed.
Located in the Rafah Plain region south of the Gaza Strip, Yamit was envisioned as a large city for 200,000 people that would create a buffer zone between the Gaza Strip and the Sinai Peninsula. It was built on land in a 140,000 dunam (14,000 hectare) area from which some 1,500 Bedouin families of the Al-Ramilat tribes were ordered to leave by Moshe Dayan and Southern Command head Ariel Sharon. Construction of Yamit began in January 1975. When the first fifty residents arrived there were no buildings, roads, electricity or water. Nevertheless, ambitious plans were drawn up for a port, a flour mill, a Dead Sea canal, a hotel and a university. A cornerstone was laid for a yeshiva. By the second year, the population reached 100.
Upon the signing of the Egypt–Israel peace treaty in 1979, it was clear that Yamit's days were numbered. Most of the residents accepted compensation and relocated to other cities. Those who chose to stay were joined by nationalist supporters who moved in to boost their numbers. When the order came to evacuate Yamit, the remaining residents barricaded themselves inside their homes, while others climbed up to their roofs as soldiers broke down their doors.
Before the establishment of Yamit, the area south of Gaza known as the Rafah salient was farmed by Bedouin who grew almond, peach, olive and castor-oil trees, as well as wheat. Other crops were grown near the coastline, where groundwater rose almost to the surface. They also herded sheep and goats.Some lived in tents, but others lived in tin shacks and concrete houses'.
On January 14, 1972, Ariel Sharon ordered the expulsion of the Bedouins of the Rafah Plain, about 18 square miles (47 km2) of land in northeast Sinai. According to Eyal Weizman, their orchards and water wells were also destroyed. The tribal sheikhs claimed 20,000 people were affected although Israeli army statistics put the number at 4,950. Those living in tents were given a day to remove them. Those in concrete houses were given an extra day to leave before the structures were razed. Following a map drawn by Sharon, bulldozers were employed to remove all structures that remained. The establishment of Yamit was formally approved by the Israeli government in September 1973.
Settling northeastern Sinai was an idea strongly promoted by Moshe Dayan. The idea was subsequently proposed in a document on Israeli policy in the occupied territories by Yisrael Galili in an attempt to bridge the gap between hardliners and moderates in the Israeli Labour Party. According to an Israeli kibbutznik who visited the area immediately after the expulsion:
a group from kibbutzim "were stunned by the dimensions of the wreckage, and by the number of persons who were expelled." The IDF claimed that it had merely evacuated a few nomads from state lands onto which nomads had recently encroached. A month later, the head of the International Committee of the Red Cross raised the issue with Dayan's viceroy in the territories, Shlomo Gazit, who knew nothing about it. The IDF chief of staff David Elazar, on being informed, flew over the area by helicopter to see for himself and subsequently appointed a commission to investigate what Ariel Sharon had done.
The subsequent inquiry revealed that the expulsion of the Bedouins had occurred under Dayan's initiative and without government authorization. Golda Meir's government implemented the pre-prepared plan for settlements on this Bedouin territory. According to one source, it was this official decision to establish a large Israeli city at Yamit which, for Anwar Sadat and senior Egyptian officials, "was the straw that broke the camel's back", eventuating in the loss of hopes for a peace agreement and the onset of the Yom Kippur War. Avi Shlaim argues however that the Arab decision to go to war preceded the Galilee Document's publication. Nonetheless, Dayan made public remarks about his intention to build a deep-water port at Yamit, cutting Egypt off from the Gaza Strip, and Sadat is on record as saying, "Every word spoken about Yamit is a knife pointing at me personally and at my self-respect."
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Yamit
Yamit (Hebrew: ימית) was an Israeli settlement in the northern part of the Sinai Peninsula with a population of about 2,500 people. Yamit was established during Israel's occupation of the peninsula from the end of the 1967 Six-Day War until that part of the Sinai was handed over to Egypt in April 1982, as part of the terms of the 1979 Egypt–Israel peace treaty. It was the largest Jewish town in Sinai. Prior to the return of the land to Egypt, all the homes were evacuated and bulldozed.
Located in the Rafah Plain region south of the Gaza Strip, Yamit was envisioned as a large city for 200,000 people that would create a buffer zone between the Gaza Strip and the Sinai Peninsula. It was built on land in a 140,000 dunam (14,000 hectare) area from which some 1,500 Bedouin families of the Al-Ramilat tribes were ordered to leave by Moshe Dayan and Southern Command head Ariel Sharon. Construction of Yamit began in January 1975. When the first fifty residents arrived there were no buildings, roads, electricity or water. Nevertheless, ambitious plans were drawn up for a port, a flour mill, a Dead Sea canal, a hotel and a university. A cornerstone was laid for a yeshiva. By the second year, the population reached 100.
Upon the signing of the Egypt–Israel peace treaty in 1979, it was clear that Yamit's days were numbered. Most of the residents accepted compensation and relocated to other cities. Those who chose to stay were joined by nationalist supporters who moved in to boost their numbers. When the order came to evacuate Yamit, the remaining residents barricaded themselves inside their homes, while others climbed up to their roofs as soldiers broke down their doors.
Before the establishment of Yamit, the area south of Gaza known as the Rafah salient was farmed by Bedouin who grew almond, peach, olive and castor-oil trees, as well as wheat. Other crops were grown near the coastline, where groundwater rose almost to the surface. They also herded sheep and goats.Some lived in tents, but others lived in tin shacks and concrete houses'.
On January 14, 1972, Ariel Sharon ordered the expulsion of the Bedouins of the Rafah Plain, about 18 square miles (47 km2) of land in northeast Sinai. According to Eyal Weizman, their orchards and water wells were also destroyed. The tribal sheikhs claimed 20,000 people were affected although Israeli army statistics put the number at 4,950. Those living in tents were given a day to remove them. Those in concrete houses were given an extra day to leave before the structures were razed. Following a map drawn by Sharon, bulldozers were employed to remove all structures that remained. The establishment of Yamit was formally approved by the Israeli government in September 1973.
Settling northeastern Sinai was an idea strongly promoted by Moshe Dayan. The idea was subsequently proposed in a document on Israeli policy in the occupied territories by Yisrael Galili in an attempt to bridge the gap between hardliners and moderates in the Israeli Labour Party. According to an Israeli kibbutznik who visited the area immediately after the expulsion:
a group from kibbutzim "were stunned by the dimensions of the wreckage, and by the number of persons who were expelled." The IDF claimed that it had merely evacuated a few nomads from state lands onto which nomads had recently encroached. A month later, the head of the International Committee of the Red Cross raised the issue with Dayan's viceroy in the territories, Shlomo Gazit, who knew nothing about it. The IDF chief of staff David Elazar, on being informed, flew over the area by helicopter to see for himself and subsequently appointed a commission to investigate what Ariel Sharon had done.
The subsequent inquiry revealed that the expulsion of the Bedouins had occurred under Dayan's initiative and without government authorization. Golda Meir's government implemented the pre-prepared plan for settlements on this Bedouin territory. According to one source, it was this official decision to establish a large Israeli city at Yamit which, for Anwar Sadat and senior Egyptian officials, "was the straw that broke the camel's back", eventuating in the loss of hopes for a peace agreement and the onset of the Yom Kippur War. Avi Shlaim argues however that the Arab decision to go to war preceded the Galilee Document's publication. Nonetheless, Dayan made public remarks about his intention to build a deep-water port at Yamit, cutting Egypt off from the Gaza Strip, and Sadat is on record as saying, "Every word spoken about Yamit is a knife pointing at me personally and at my self-respect."