Banished: The Novel
There are book launches in Jerusalem almost every night of the week, but it’s rare that a work of historical fiction raises the kind of emotion evidenced tonight at the Gush Katif Museum when author Aliza BasMenachem (Aliza Karp) broke out her new novel, Banished, based on the story of Jews evicted from their homes in the so-called Gaza disengagement of 2005.
Author Aliza BasMenachem
Aliza, who currently lives in New York, spent many months prior to the 2005 destruction of 22 Gush Katif communities, in the largest of them, Neve Dekalim. She’s a Chabadnik who has penned many articles and opinion pieces during her career, but this is the first time she’s attempted fiction.
The author told interviewer Walter Bingham of Israel National News that she decided to use the historical fiction route in order to bring out the emotion and penetrate the thinking of the Gush Katif evictees she wanted to portray. “I write best when I’m angry,” noted Aliza, and like many in the audience at the Museum, the eviction of thousands of Jews from their homes exactly six years ago caused her to be angry at those who devised and implemented the disastrous plan.
Before Aliza took the microphone, former Neve Dekalim resident Moshe Saperstein addressed the crowd.
