By Wikipedia I recently took students studying geopolitics on a field trip to the region north of Beersheba. Within a few hours, they visited the border crossing…
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Bnei Atzmon was an Israeli settlement originally founded in 1979 in the Yamit region of the Sinai peninsula as a response to Camp David Accords which promoted trading territory for peace. The settlement was relocated to the Gush Katif region of the Gaza Strip about three km north of Rafah after the signing of the Israel-Egypt Peace Treaty and the subsequent eviction of all Jews living in Sinai and surrender of all land there in 1982. The settlement in Sinai was originally named Atzmona, but since that location was evacuated and Israeli law forbids renaming a new location with the name of a previously existing legal entity, Bnei Atzmon (Sons of Atzmon) became the officially registered name. Nonetheless, the name Atzmona was more widely known. The Orthodox Jewish moshav was associated with the Amana settlement organization. It was home to about 90 families, including just under 600 people, at the time of its destruction as a result of Israel's unilateral disengagement plan on August 17, 2005. While some form of opposition had been expected from residents in this nationalistic settlement, the actual expulsion was carried out without active or even passive resistance. The pre-army preparatory program was also pulled without resistance, with the participation of several senior army officers who had been invited especially for this "pull-out."
