Beauty of the Orange Grove is Crushed as Sharon Prepares to Move Settlers

Beauty of the orange grove is crushed as Sharon prepares to move Gaza's settlers
By Donald Macintyre in Nitzanim

20 May 2005

The sinking sun across the Mediterranean was a deep red and the birds in full pre-twilight chorus as Hananiya Cohen switched off his engine. We were at the edge of what had been, 24 hours earlier, a mature, secluded orange grove at the foot of the dunes that help make this Israel's most famous area of coastal beauty.

The normally talkative Meir Dahan, a former rabbi and the local representative on the Ashkelon Coast Regional Council, was left speechless by the sight that Mr Cohen had brought him to see. Some 100 of the trees, still in fruit, were lying on the ground.

As we slithered back through the sand in Mr Cohen's four-wheel-drive, Mr Dahan, who represents Nitzan, an open-minded little religious community, muttered: "This is the end of Nitzan."

Whatever the exact reasons for the destruction - and Mr Dahan is convinced they are all too clear - it symbolised for him what many residents see as the intolerably high social and environmental cost of trying to persuade most of the 8,500 Jewish settlers in the Gaza Strip to relocate to this area, famous for its wildlife and flora.

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/story.jsp?story=639788