Confusion, misdirection, propaganda, and misinformation are the hallmarks of life in the Gaza Strip these days. From the 1.4 million native and refugee Palestinians in Gaza to the Israeli occupation soldiers and some 8,500 Israeli settlers, from heads of state to the humblest citizen, nobody seems to be sure about how the planned “disengagement” of Israeli forces and the evacuation of the illegal Israeli settlements will play out.

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and his closest advisers do not talk much about the issue. The plan has generated different reactions; while the mainstream Western media is hailing the plan as a “breakthrough for peace,” extremist rabbis publicly are calling down death and destruction on Sharon and his government. The one thing that seems certain is that Sharon has staked his  political future on removing all Israeli settlers from Gaza and from four small settlements in the northern West Bank. Such vague plans as have been announced so far involve an orderly and voluntary removal, but Sharon has left little room for doubt that the Gaza settlements will be emptied, by force if necessary.

The settlers themselves fall into two main groups: (1) secular or moderately observant Jews—roughly half of the settlers—who were attracted to the Gaza and West Bank settlements by strong financial considerations: low housing costs, tax incentives, free land, and business opportunities; and (2) settlers who espouse an ultra-Orthodox theology that, according to their claim, dictates that they physically occupy “Eretz Israel” (Greater Israel) and displace all its non-Jewish inhabitants. For them, their presence in the settlements is God’s will, and, by staying there, they maintain their inescapable religious duty. Though their motives are religious, the Israeli government—either Labor or Likud—has supported them for political reasons.

The fervor, which some people call fanaticism, of the religious settlers has forced many of their secular neighbors into an awkward double game. Those who announced publicly that they would be happy to leave Gaza if given adequate compensation and financial assistance in starting over have been denounced as traitors by the ultra-Orthodox settlers. Many received death threats, and others were harassed or beaten.

As a result, many secular settlers have approached the Disengagement Management office secretly requesting compensation and voluntary evacuation. At the same time, in public, they have been offering lip-service to the hard-liners to preserve their safety. Making matters worse, the Sharon government has been painfully slow in announcing resettlement plans; the promised compensation has yet to be paid.

Led by many outspoken rabbis inside and outside the settlements, the religious settlers are opposing the disengagement plan using all possible means, from media-savvy civil disobedience to threats of violence and medieval curses. For them, the end, which is carrying out God’s will by remaining in the settlements, justifies the means. According to their views, their enemies are not only Israel’s enemies but God’s as well.

Many observant modern Jews have never heard of the Pulsa d’Nora (the Scourge of Fire) ceremony, let alone have seen it. A news footage of the medieval rite recently surfaced on the Israeli TV. Rooted in cabalistic lore and ceremonial magic, the ritual calls down the most elaborate and dire curses on its target. A description of the ritual sounds like a piece of horror fiction: 20 black-robed rabbis enter an underground cave in the middle of the night, light black candles, and keep repeating after the leader the name of the one to be cursed—most recently Ariel Sharon.

In solemn prayers, the rabbis called upon the Destroying Angel to kill Sharon. If by chance the rabbis misjudged the situation—their intended victim did not deserve death—they would stipulate “May the Destroying Angel kill the 20 rabbis.” The extremist rabbis make no secret of the fact that the Pulsa d’Nora ritual was invoked against the late Israeli Prime Minister Itzak Rabin, and they insist that it succeeded brilliantly. Rabin was assassinated by a fanatic young Israeli student, Yigal Amir, but according to the rabbis, it was really the Destroying Angel at work.

Most Palestinians in Gaza can cite less arcane sources for their hardships. With the disengagement slated for mid-August, the checkpoint closures have been frequent. At the closed Abu Holi checkpoint in the middle of Gaza, Jedallah Al-Huat, 28, explained that he used to work at the Gush Katif settlement. He had been employed there as a tailor since he was 16 by the Israeli settler Toni Bukra, 38. After the impending disengagement plan was announced, Bukra offered to sell the furnishings of his clothing factory to Al-Huat. They settled on a price of 300,000 shekels (roughly US$7,000) for the machines, factory equipment, fabric inventory, and finished clothing, which Al-Huat brought to his home. Al-Huat hoped to establish his own business in post-disengagement Gaza.

Al-Huat got to know his employer well over the years. “The settlers in Gush Katif have had a comfortable life,” he explained. “More than that, they’ve grown rich here. The first time I ever met Toni he was riding an old black bicycle. Now he drives a 2005 model Suzuki. Toni was in a very shaky financial situation before coming to Gaza; I doubt you could call it middle class. But he’s done very well in Gush Katif. And when he leaves,” Al-Huat noted, “he’ll get lots of money in return for his house, his clothing factory, and for his 13 dunums of greenhouses.”

Bukra’s pragmatic approach is lightyears away from the prevailing sentiments at the nearby Neve Dakalim settlement. There, the Israeli occupation forces (IOF) guard the Israeli enclave, and armed settlers frequently open fire at the civilian neighborhoods of Khan Younis. In January of this year, 15-year-old Ahmed Abu Mustapha was walking down the street when he was shot dead by a sniper from the settlement.

“This is not a disengagement,” she declared. “I am going to be thrown out of my own house and forcibly removed from my neighbors and my home. I have not packed my bags. We are all praying it will not happen.” But has she—in case the worst happens—signed the papers to get financial compensation? “Of course I didn’t sign!” she shouted. “I don’t want tainted money.” Verbally, the elderly woman is as militant as her armed neighbors. “The Palestinians are the ones who should be thrown out,” she insisted. “That’s part of our Bible. Don’t you know that?”

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