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Yehuda Meshi Zahav (center), head of Israel's ZAKA rescue unit. The Israeli group was the biggest civilian aid contributor to Sri Lanka after the tsunami, but refuses to help move Jewish graves from Gaza.
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| By israelinsider staff and partners May 4, 2005 |
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| The Jewish "settlement" of Neve Dekalin in the Gaza Strip, where residents question both what will happen to their homes and their cemeteries. (AP) |
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The security establishment requested that ZAKA Rescue & Recovery -- the organization that ensures the proper burial and collection of human tissues after terror attacks -- participate in exhuming the graves of those buried in Gush Katif.
ZAKA refused the request and also decided to discontinue its work with traffic police, despite fears that the latter will free up officers to participate in this summer's planned expulsion of Jews from the Gaza Strip and northern Samaria.
Meshi-Zahav He explained that of late, ZAKA volunteers have been taking part in police-run traffic safety courses -- but that he suddenly realized that his volunteers' efforts were to be used to "free up" policemen for expulsion work.
In addition, Meshi-Zahav said, "I received a request to have cameras stationed on the cars, for use in photographing right-wing demonstrators. I realized that this was not for me, and decided to suspend our joint courses and reduce our relationship with the police for the coming months."
"There is no chance that we will have anything to do with this," ZAKA chairman Yehuda Meshi-Zahav said. "I was one of the founders of the Hatzala emergency response team in Gush Katif. I am a part of the place. How can I take part in an act like this?"
Meshi-Zahav's refusal comes alongside a ruling by Tel Aviv Chevra Kadisha burial society rabbi and expert on burial issues, Rabbi Yakov Rujha, that Jewish law calls for the transfer of Jewish graves in Gaza, to prevent them from being desecrated by Palestinians. "The removal of Gush Katif graves is permitted according to Jewish law," he said. "The moment there is a danger that Palestinians would violate the deceased's honor and desecrate the place?the graves must be transferred, even if the settlers and relatives of the deceased object."
Jewish law reigns supreme in such matters, the rabbi said, and individual objections must not be taken into account.
Currently, there are 47 graves in the Gush Katif cemetery, including six graves of area residents murdered by terrorists.
The question of transferring the graves is a hot and emotional one. As of now, settler communities have not willingly agreed to let graves be moved.
On Tuesday, Gaza families slated for evacuation said they were furious, after getting a letter from Disengagement Administration head Yonatan Bassi urging them to move the graves of their loved ones to Kibbutz Nitzanim.
The letter said, however, that the decision of whether to move the graves is in the families' hands.
In the letter, Bassi praised Nitzanim officials for displaying sensitivity and agreeing that the secular cemetery in the community should be used to accommodate religious residents as well. The kibbutz agreed to divide the cemetery so that a section of it would be used to establish a new cemetery to accommodate religious ceremonies, Bassi wrote.
Gaza settlers, however, were not impressed with Bassi's letter.
Neve Dekalim resident Shlomo Yulis, whose son Raphael is buried in Gush Katif, said settlers are used to the Disengagement Administration's tendency to manipulate the truth.
Yulis said he was especially upset about Bassi's claim that the matter had been discussed with the Hevra Kadisha burial society. "They wrote false things to the families. The fact that they spoke with the Hevra Kadisha, there is no truth to it," he said.
The administration is treating would-be evacuees as if they were objects, Yulis said.
"They treat lab animals better than they do people here," he said. "They go to finalize matters before talking to us, the families. They knew there was a cemetery here and they didn't see fit to turn to us until now and address the matter? This is a case of insensitivity."
Yulis said that his son, who died 12 years ago, asked to be buried in Gush Katif. "I have no home somewhere else," he said. "This is my home, and sadly I have a grave (here), too."
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