Israel today completed its evacuation of Sinai, exactly three years after the signing of the peace treaty, with Egypt and the Camp David accords and just two months under 15 years since capturing the area in the Six-Day War of 1967.
The Israel army did not leave the region with banners flying, in a demonstration of the sacrifices Israel was making for the soke of peace with its largest Arab neighbor. The army simply left, with no formal flag-lowering or hand-over ceremonies.
Apart from a brief 10-minute ceremony at Ophira at which the Israel Air Force fowered the flog and the last helicopter left the ground on its way back to Israel at 7:30 in the morning, the only timetable for the steps in the total evacuation was that “the last man should be out of the area and back across the old-new border by noon,” an army spokesman solemnly declared.
PEACEKEEPING FORCE WILL BEGIN PATROLLING AREA
A multi-national peace leeping force of some 2,500 men, with half the personnel and 60 percent of the financing provided by the United States, will begin p{SPAN}##ing{/SPAN} Sinai. The force is drawn up from II nations, but it will not operate under the auspices of the United Nations as have previous peacekeeping forces in the Middle East.
Each contingent is bringing its own equipment and it is likely to cost about $225 million to set up and operate the force in its first year. The task of the force will be to patrol the Sinai side of the new Israeli-Egyptian border stretching from the Mediterranean to the Red Sea.
Today, within minutes of the last Israeli soldier leaving Ophira, Egyptian officials were putting up new signs at the nearby airfield, saying in Arabic and English:” Sharm e-Sheikh” — its old name prior to its Israeli take-over 15 years before.
By this afternoon, Egyptian flags were raised at the three border-crossing points of Rafah and Nitza-non, as well as the still temporary crossing point south of Toba near Eilat, the future of which is still under discussion in Cairo.
But on the ruins of Yamit, or nearby, some Egyptian flags were already to be seen this morning, raised by Bedouins waiting to move in to take whatever has been left behind.
THE HOLDOUTS IN YOMIT
Within the ruins of Yamit, a small group of some 20 anti-withdrawal demonstrators, led by Kiryat Arba Rabbi Moshe Levinger, were allowed to remain over Shabbat in the Sephardi Synagogue, the ortly building still standing among the ruins.
The group was joined by a few Jerusalem rabbis allowed to spend the last Sabbath there, and a couple of hundred anti-withdrawal movement members who infiltrated back through army roadblocks.
At a ceremony in the synagogue this morning Rabbi Haim Druckman and the militants announced the establishment of a new political party, to be called “Shvut Israel” (Israel Return) working for the return of the evacuated area to Israel, and aimed to compete with the National Religious Party.
The members then tore their clothes in sign of mourning and marched out with the Torah scrolls, back across the international border.
EVACUATING SINAI FOR PEACE
In a lengthy order of the day, Defense Minister Ariel Sharon declared that Israel was not retiring from Sinai but evacuating willingly for peace.
He said that the town of Yamit had been destroyed and razed to the ground to prevent the shedding of Jewish blood. He said that this was the first time in Israel’s history that such action had been undertaken willingly.
Sharon praised the soldiers who had taken part in the Yamit operation “Evacuating their brothers and sisters, not with violence but with love and understanding…
“The r## of Yamit will bear etemal proof that we have done over and above human imagination to meet our obligations under the peace treaty so that our children will not point an accusing finger at us and tell us we have missed the opportunity…
“No Arab army has succeeded — and never will succeed — in demolishing an Israeli town. Only we, with our own hands, were forced to destroy Yamit. We were forced to erase it from the face of the earth to implement the peace agreement on time, without spilling Jewish blood.”
ONE BUILDING REMAINS IN YAMIT
Shortly before noon the southern front commander toured the international border, from the ruins of Yamit where some 2,000 militants had been ousted and 600 houses destroyed, to Taba south of Eilat, where soldiers now staff a temporary line running just south of the disputed Rafi Nelson village and a luxury hotel complex still abuilding. The exact line of the agreed border is still to be determined.
The only building left standing in Yamit is the Sephardi Synagogue which has been marked as a holy site which the Egyptians have promised to maintain and allow Israeli rabbinical inspection at frequent intervals.
Shortly before the evacuation deadline army patrols searched the Yamit area and Air Force planes and helicopters flew over the region looking for militants who might have hidden in the dunes.
The Egyptians have undertaken to return any such demonstrators found to Israeli authorities within eight hours. If any are caught on a second infiltration attempt, they will be taken by the Egyptians for police interrogation.
The new “Shvut Israel” political movement formed by Druckman has termed Yamit a “Holy City” and vows to work for an Israeli return to Yamit and Sinai.
The movement was denounced by the NRP, which said that the demand for a return to Sinai was tantamount to a call for renewed war. The new movement is also opposed by the Tehiya movement which regards it as a weakening of the front to ensure Israeli settlementon the West Bank.
In his order of the day, Sharon stated that the Sinai withdrawal was the “red line in Israeli concessions.”
While the last Israeli soldiers were withdrawing from Sinai, Labor Party leader Shimon Peres was as far away as possible — touring the northern border along Lebanon.
He praised the Israeli soldiers for the manner in which they had carried out an essential but most unpleasant task in removing die-hard militants who had attacked them from rooftops. He also said he felt he had to praise Premier Menachem Begin for having carried out the withdrawal, on time in accordance with an intemational obligation.
But Peres added he could not forgive him for the many mistakes made in the three years of negotiations leading up to the Sinai evacuation. He said that from his personal knowledge from talks with the late Egyptian President Anwar Sadat, he knew that some territorial concessions could have been obtained from the Egyptians — including continued Israeli use of Air Force bases in Sinai.
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