Poetry in the Aftermath of the Gaza Strip Disengagement

Abstract

This article investigates a corpus of poems written in response to the 2005 Disengagement Plan from the time of its public announcement to its actual execution that entailed the destruction of settlements in Gush Katif (Gaza) and Northern Samaria and the evacuation of their residents. The works of several poets are discussed, most of whom were linked to the Mashiv Haruach journal and its cultural-sociological milieu. The author looks at the evacuees’ poetry collection ‘On the Disengagement’; the album Orange Dawn; Eliaz Cohen’s anthology Invitation to Cry: Six Poems about the Disengagement; the poetic cycle ‘Ten Journeys’ by Sivan Har-Shefi; poems by Nahum Pachenik and Elhanan Nir; and the Land of Israel prayer book Tzir Kissufim.

The article seeks an answer to the question: Were these poems, written under particular political circumstances, intended to motivate political action, and if so, what was the nature and degree of effectiveness of the action? The author examines the political actualization of these poems according to three types of readers: those who opposed the disengagement, those who were indifferent to it, and those who supported it.