Anita Tucker: A former Gush Katif resident yearns to go home

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Welcome to The Times of Israel's newest podcast series, Friday Focus. Each Friday, join host deputy editor Amanda Borschel-Dan for a deep dive into what's behind the news that spins the globe.

This week, as Israel marks the beginning of the Disengagement from Gaza 20 years ago, we speak with former Brooklynite Anita Tucker, 79, who helped settle Nezer Hazani in 1977 and was forcibly removed from her home in 2005 alongside her husband, children and grandchildren.

Affectionately called "the celery lady" due to her flourishing Gush Katif farm, Tucker describes how her young children were the deciding factor for staking their tent pegs in the barren land of Nezer Hazani after she viewed them "sledding" down the dunes on garbage bags.

This same inert sand allowed the residents to grow their trademark, bug-free Gush Katif vegetables with the newest agricultural technology -- drip irrigation.

She talks about warm relationships with her Arab neighbors -- until talk of "peace" came and the empowerment of PLO leader Yasser Arafat. She describes how once Arafat established a foothold in Gaza, he hanged the leadership of Deir al-Balah, who were Tucker’s close personal friends.

She speaks about the terror attacks the community absorbed, but the ideological faith that their community was protecting the rest of the Land of Israel.

Former prime minister Ariel Sharon's announcement of a unilateral pullout from Gaza came as a betrayal and we hear how the youth protested against this move until the very end.

But after the pullout, the former Gush Katif residents experienced a second betrayal in that they had to fight to get compensation and rebuild their lives. Tucker and much of the original settlement refounded Nezer Hazani seven years later inside the State of Israel, but, as she says, these are their "houses," they are not their "homes."

Tucker speaks to the community's yearning to resettle the Gaza Strip and how concrete plans have been presented to the Israeli government during what the potential resettlers view as a window of opportunity.

Friday Focus can be found on all podcast platforms. This episode was produced by the Pod-Waves.

IMAGE: Israeli Jewish settlers celebrate the Jewish festival of Tu Bishvat, marking the new year for trees in the Jewish settlement of Neve Dekalim in the Gush Katif block of settlements in the Gaza Strip, January 25, 2005. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)