On the edge of a continent, where land meets the sea and turtles lay their eggs in the soft sand, is a town filled with lots of love, but much less peace.
Here, in what should be a tranquil setting, in view of rolling hills and a rich agricultural land, reside hard-working people with only one goal: to get on with life and to live in peace.
The problem is, this town – Netiv Ha’Asara – is only an arm’s length from the constant threat of rockets, bombs and terror attacks, which, over the years, has turned into a ‘new norm’ for its many residents.
For the children living here, the sound of air raid sirens has become all too familiar, but is none the less chilling each time it starts its unsettling wailing.
This is the supposed land of milk and honey, in the south of Israel, just north of the Gaza strip, in close proximity to the dreaded Hamas terror tunnels.
In fact, there might have been tunnels right under my feet while I was there, built from cement donated by Israelis and with the sweat of terrorists.
My Reason to Visit
Why even go there, you might ask? Well, I was in nearby Ashkelon to do a bit of family research and decided to visit the wall since it was so close.
“Twenty years ago we could come and go freely, cross the border into Gaza with ease – and the Arabs could also come here any time, no problem at all,” said Maayan Zamir, the daughter of Tsameret Zamir, founder of “Path to Peace”.
Netiv Ha’Asara has a painful history – while it is only a few decades old, it already had to relocate once when Israel returned the Sinai Peninsula to Egypt in 1982. That’s because Netiv Ha’Asara was originally founded in the north of the Sinai in 1973, a few miles from the border of the current Gaza Strip.
Here, the original residents wanted to remember 10 fallen IDF soldiers that died during the battles against the Egyptians. Since its relocation in the 1980s, Netiv Ha’Asara has been involved in agricultural production and many of its residents also work in Tel Aviv, just 40 minutes north of here.
“Some of our Gazan friends worked in this moshav [village] too, but unfortunately they are now living under the constant threat of Hamas terror cells over there,” said Maayan.
She was pointing towards the wall in the distance, a stone’s throw away where Israeli soldiers constantly keep a watchful eye over the 1950 Armistice Line.
The Gaza Strip
Gaza currently has nearly two million residents, about the same as Budapest, the capital of Hungary. It is 365 square kilometres in size with a GDP of about USD 6,100 per capita. This compares with about USD 15,980 per capita for Budapest.
Most of the population lives in cities, particularly in Gaza City in the north. Since 2014, Egypt’s crackdown on the Gaza Strip’s extensive tunnel-based smuggling network has exacerbated fuel, construction material, and consumer goods shortages in the territory, the US intelligence agency CIA says.
Life was great here, we all lived side by side and went to the market in Gaza and they came over here to the shops or for medical treatment and to work,” Maayan added.
This all changed in the late 1990s and early 2000s when Arab terrorists began planting bombs around Tel Aviv and other parts of Israel, maiming and killing dozens over the years.
Rocket fire from Gaza also began to intensify around the year 2000, and the Israeli Authorities had to do something to stop this senseless killing.
Trying to Appease the Arabs
In the hope of appeasing the Arab residents of the Gaza Strip, the Israeli government evacuated the region in 2005 and removed all Israeli interests, including residents, from Gaza.
According to the CIA Factbook, dismantlement of Israeli settlements was completed in September 2005 and the Gaza Strip has had no Jewish population since then.
What ensued, however, has defied most people’s expectations: instead of building a better life for themselves, Gazans decided to elect Hamas, a terrorist organization, who now keep control over everything that happens in the “Strip”.
The CIA Factbook says that Hamas seized control of Gaza in June 2007 and that since then “Gaza has suffered from rising unemployment, elevated poverty rates, and a sharp contraction of the private sector”.
“We know many people in Gaza, and we also know that they just want to live in peace and get on with their lives, they don’t want to live in constant fear and misery.
“But, what you should also know is that if they speak up, Hamas retaliates and kills them – so they keep quiet and carry on with their lives,” Maayan said.
The Path to Peace
Her mother, during one of those ominous rocket attacks decided that she’d had enough of living under not only the physical but also the mental terror and that it was time to do something about it.
“I remember clearly: I was in the kitchen when the air raid alarm went off and my four children were outside waiting to board the school bus. I immediately went rushing out to the street and got on the bus to reassure them, even though it was one of the worst things to do as we became an easy target with little defence.”
“In that moment, when I saw the fear in my children’s eyes, I started to speak words that were very uncharacteristic of me – words of strength and reassurance.”
That moment was a turning point for Tsameret because she decided to bring the world’s attention to their plight and show a side of this conflict that is much less reported on.
One day I was out and about and it occurred to me that I should paint something on the wall, something like a message to the world and to the residents of Gaza.”
“That is when the idea came to me to paint the words ‘Path to Peace’ on the wall facing Gaza, so if Gazans looked out they would see it; see that we also want peace.”
The Israeli Authorities began to build the defensive walls in response to rockets fired from Gaza in the early 2000s. Contrary to common belief, the wall is not there to lock people in, but to stop the terrorists from aiming their rockets at houses perched on the hills of Netiv Ha’Asara.
Even with the wall, most houses along the edge of Netiv Ha’Asara have been hit at least once, forcing all residents to equip their houses with bomb and shatter proof equipment.
The main wall is along the armistice line, followed by a second wall around the hilltops to hide the houses in the moshav. Other defensive structures are shrubs and dense tree lines hiding roads and pavements, so snipers from Gaza City cannot aim at people in Netiv Ha’Asara.
The Need for Dialogue
However, understanding the need for co-operation and dialogue, Tsameret decided to bring the world’s attention to this side of the wall.
“Ceramics has been a long-time hobby for me – it takes my mind off the terror around us and helps me switch off.”
Later she combined this activity with her passion, and started decorating the large letters of ‘Path to Peace’ with ceramics she was creating in her own workshop. These little ceramic pieces that fit in anyone’s palm, now adorn the side of many wall units along the 1950 Armistice Line.
“We have had visitors from all over the world and our idea seems to have caught on because we needed to expand to a second wall section,” the mother said.
“For the entrance fee of 25 shekels, tourists get a small ceramics piece, get to watch a movie about our lives in the moshav and of course enjoy a cup of coffee or tea here in our garden.
“There is also the opportunity of an extended tour of the moshav and a visit to the viewpoint overlooking the houses of Gaza from the hillside in Netiv Ha’Asara.
“Luckily we have a constant stream of visitors and most of them are sympathetic, hopefully leaving us with a different impression of the situation.”