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Electronic copy available at: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1481912
Engaging the Disengaged: Collective Action, Media Uses and
Sense of (Virtual) Community by Evacuees from Gush Katif
Dr. Azi Lev-On, Ariel University Center
Abstract
Former residents of the evacuated Gush Katif region, once parts of closely-
knit and cohesive communities, have been spread across Israel in temporary
settlements since the disengagement (2005).
1 The goal of this study is to
learn how the evacuees interact with one another to organize politically and to
retain their social capital, focusing on Katif.net, the major Internet site in use
by the former residents of Gush Katif. This is an unusual case of a virtual
community that continues to thrive online even as its offline predecessor has
been evacuated.
Introduction
Gush Katif was a string of 21 Jewish settlements in the Gaza Strip, most of
them situated around the Palestinian town of Khan-Yunis in the southern part
of the strip. The settlements were established between 1970 and the early
2000's. In 2005 the Gush, as the block of settlements was called, had
approximately 8500 residents. The center of the Gush was Neve Dekalim
inhabited by some 700 families (about a third of the total population of the
Gush). All the settlements were a part of the 'Gaza Coast' (Chof Aza) regional
council.
The population of Gush Katif subsisted mainly on services, small industry and
agriculture (about 900 acres of greenhouses). The communities of the Gush
were quite homogenous, both socially and religiously: the majority were
members of the Zionist national-religious camp, held together by strong social
bonds and a thick sense of community, reinforced by the harsh and
exacerbated security concerns (Billig, 2006; Schnell & Mishal, 2005). This
was especially felt after the start of the second Palestinians uprising, the Al-
Aqsa Intifada, in 2000. After 2000, the settlements found themselves under
1 Many thanks to Jason Reich, Odelia Adler, Ruth Margolin, Sarit Mazouz, Vadim Turkov and Chen Sabag. Special
thanks to Motti and Elchanan Sender for their assistance and support.
Electronic copy available at: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1481912
Katif.net
2
frequent attack from the neighboring Palestinians, and during this period the
settlements suffered approximately 6000 mortar and Qassam rocket attacks,
and frequent small arms fire directed at the settlements as well as the main
access roads leading to them (Weisblai, Tal & Lotan, 2007). On a few
occasions, militants even succeeded in evading the thick IDF defensive
presence around the settlements and infiltrating inside, leading to casualties
among solders, inhabitants and foreign workers.
Resident’s geographic isolation from family and friends living outside the
settlements enhanced the need to rely on friends from within the community,
and life in the settlements became engaged in common challenges and
mutual assistance. With the deterioration of the security situation the sense of
togetherness grew stronger, as did the community spirit, which led to
traditions such as shared meals when residents survived a dangerous attack
(Roth, 2005; Billig, 2006).
Disengagement
The disengagement plan was initiated by the Israeli prime minister Ariel
Sharon and revealed to the public for the first time in December of 2003. It
called for a unilateral withdrawal of Israel from the Gaza Strip, evacuating all
military forces as well as all of the civilian settlements. In addition, four
settlements located in northern Samaria were to be evacuated as well (Kadim,
Ganim, Sa-Nur and Chomesh). In this article I will only be discussing the
evacuation of Gush Katif.
On the 26th of October, 2004, the Israeli Knesset approved the initial
framework for the legal procedure of evacuating the settlements with a
majority of 67 votes to 45. On the 16th of February, 2005, the disengagement
plan was codified into law with a majority of 59 to 40 votes. The actual
implementation of the disengagement lasted less than a month, between
August 15th and September 11th, 2005. In comparison, during the earlier
'disengagement' of Israel from the Sinai peninsula (now in Egypt) in the late
1970's and early 1980's, the decision-making process and evacuation of
citizens from the peninsula lasted three years. Thus, the disengagement from
Gush Katif involved a significantly shorter time for the state authorities to get
Katif.net
3
prepared, as well as less time for the settlers and their supporters to organize,
prepare in advance, offer alternatives and protest (Roth, 2005; Sheleg, 2007;
Kliot, 2005).
In terms of the communities in the Gush, handling the challenges of the
evacuation proved difficult. The people of Gush Katif long held themselves as
the true vanguard of Zionism and the state of Israel – the first to face the
enemy on its borders and the ones willing to make the personal sacrifices to
live in such a hotly contested yet historically significant part of the land. After
the approval of the disengagement plan, the residents were asked to leave a
community they had spent decades building under duress of continued
hostility and attacks, while support for them sank in the eyes of in the Israeli
public, leaving many feeling betrayed and humiliated (Roth, 2005; Billig, 2005,
2006).
The approval of the Israeli government of the disengagement plan, led to a
heated public debate which included numerous acts of protest on behalf of the
residents of Gush Katif, who to this day refer to the disengagement as an
"uprooting" or "expulsion". Among the salient acts of protest against the
disengagement, one can find (Roth, 2005):
1: The color orange – Orange quickly became known as the symbol of the
anti-disengagement movement. Orange banners and signs were to be found
almost everywhere in the country, in residential and commercial areas,
intersections, highways, and major landmarks – and on cars, backpacks, and
wrists, as a sign of unity and solidarity with the settlers of Gush Katif. In the
many protest events, the organizers and participants wore orange shirts or
skirts.
2: Demonstrations – the largest demonstration against the disengagement
took place in Rabin Square on the 11th of August, 2005, comprising upwards
of 250,000 demonstrators demanding a halt to the immanent evacuation.
Another large demonstration took place a month prior to the disengagement,
in July 2005 in Kfar Maimon, where thousands of people made their way to
the Kisufim checkpoint, the entranceway to Gush Katif. Upon arrival, they
were blocked by the security forces and a demonstration ensued. In October
Katif.net
4
14th, 2004 the settlers orchestrated the "100 demonstrations" (Mifgan Ha-
Mea), involving one hundred orchestrated demonstrations across Israel.
3: Panim el Panim (face to face) – a statewide initiative whose aim was to
familiarize the citizens of Israel face-to-face with the settlers of Gush Katif and
their supporters. Volunteers from all over the country went door to door to talk
to people and explain their point of view.
4: The Israeli Chain – a protest held on the 25th of July, 2004 – was an
unprecedented logistical effort that resulted in a stretch of volunteers holding
hands from the Western wall in Jerusalem all the way until the northern part of
the Gaza strip. This human chain extended 90 kilometers, and was composed
of 130,000 participants.
5: The Internet - The struggle expanded to the Israeli Internet, with many
sites protesting the disengagement. Among the most salient were the website
of Moetzet Yesha (the council of Judea, Samaria and Gaza region), the
Channel 7 radio station website, and Katif.net (on which we elaborate later).
Activities ranged from traditional advertising and creating chains of inter-linked
sites opposing the disengagement, to sites like www.shame.co.il which posted
'black lists' of pivotal persons identified with the disengagement, and
www.seruv.co.il that offered everything from moral support to practical
guidance to members of those security forces considering refusing to
participate in the evacuation.
The Situation Today
At the time of the disengagement, the Israeli government established an
organization called Minhelet Sela (Assistance for settlers of Gaza and
Northern Samaria) whose mandate is to assist the settlers in the 'day after' in
various capacities, i.e. new housing (both temporary and permanent) as well
as financial compensation, employment guidance, psychological assistance,
and so on.
The organization that represents the settlers of Gush Katif is known as 'the
Committee for the Settlers of Gush Katif' (Vaad Mityashvey Gush Katif,
www.4katif.org.il), which was established prior to the disengagement. Today
it continues to assist the evacuees, and its goals involve assistance in
Katif.net
5
interfacing between the communities and state authorities, promotion of
issues of general interest to the evacuees, such as finding permanent
settlements, employment and more, as well as documentation and
preservation of the history of the Gush
(http://www.4katif.org.il/new/about.asp). The committee works with local
community coordinators located in each community where evacuees can be
found.
Before the disengagement, Minhelet Sela found itself struggling with many of
the settlers who refused to cooperate with the effort to organize their move. As
a result, housing solutions for many of the evacuees were not properly
prepared (in most cases the location of future permanent housing was never
even agreed upon). According to the 'clause 85' of the official disengagement
implementation law, Minhelet Sela can establish contracts with groups of
settlers in order to allow them to relocate as an entire community. The idea
behind re-locating entire communities was to ease the process of
rearrangement by preserving the communal infrastructure that was already
established in the Gush. This option was by far the preferred choice of the
evacuees, and 85% took advantage of it (Vaad Mityashvey Gush Katif, 2008;
Israel Comptroller Office, 2009).
Immediately after the disengagement, many evacuees found themselves in
motels, hotels and other temporary living arrangements. Some opted to live in
hastily constructed tent cities in order to preserve the community bond. Over
time, Minhelet Sela assisted in focusing and regrouping these disparate
clusters into a smaller and more communal living clusters, even though they
are still classified as temporary living. As of August 2008, three full years after
the disengagement was carried out, most of the evacuees are still
concentrated in a number of temporary communities. Of the 85% mentioned
above who chose to relocate as a community, only a tiny percentage, about
5%, have moved to their permanent housing (Vaad Mityashvey Gush Katif,
2008; Israel Comptroller Office, 2009).
The overwhelming majority of settlers from Gush Katif reside today within the
area in southern Israel known as "Outer Gaza" just 30km north-east of their
former homes. The three biggest clusters of evacuees today are found in
Katif.net
6
Nitzan (approximately 500 families), Yad Binyamin (approximately 250
families), and Ein Tzurim (around 150 families).2
Minhelet Sela has been severely criticized in various reports by the Israeli
state comptroller. A recent report (Israel Comptroller Office, 2009) pointed to a
large number of bureaucratic failings on the part of the Minhelet Sela,
including deferment of money transfers, mismanagement of claims, inefficient
decision-making processes, bureaucratic red-tape and more. In July of 2008
the Israeli parliament established an investigating commission to study the
failings in the process of relocating the evacuees. At this time, about 20% of
the evacuees were still unemployed, and less than half of the business
owners were able to reestablish their businesses after relocation. Only a third
of the active farmers from the Gush resumed working in agriculture (Weisblai,
Tal & Lotan, 2007; Vaad Mityashvey Gush Katif, 2008). Research reports
about former Gush residents reveal various psychological disorders,
particularly amongst the younger evacuees, such as anxiety attacks,
depression, nightmares, and PTSD symptoms (Weisblai, Tal & Lotan, 2007;
Oren, 2008; Oren & Possik, 2009).
Katif.net
In the three years since the disengagement, the majority of the evacuees are
still far from finding permanent relocation. Thus it continues to be important
for the evacuees to organize in ways that promote solutions to their
discomfort, as well as to preserve and maintain the social connection with
friends and relatives who relocated to other areas in the country. There are
various means of communication through which the evacuees can stay in
touch and organize. For example:
• Meetings and conferences – notably events organized by Vaad
Mityashvey Gush Katif like the annual ceremony commemorating "the
destruction" of the Gush.
• Shabbat Synagogue Pamphlets – introducing religious and social
commentary, distributed every Friday in synagogues across the
country. Common examples are Olam Katan, Maayanay Hayeshua,
2 Data received from Vaad Mityashvey Gush Katif, May 2008.
Katif.net
7
and B'Ahava U-B'Emunah. These 'small media' are significant for
communication among the religious communities of Israel (Almozlinos,
2006).
• Print Media – newspapers that are distributed on a daily or weekly
basis. Amongst the newspapers that are popular with the evacuees
are the right-wing leaning B'sheva, Hatzofe, and Makor Rishon.
• Radio – Listening to radio broadcasts either over the air or via the
Internet (especially Arutz Sheva- Channel 7, www.inn.co.il)
• Cellphones/SMS – before the disengagement, Orange, a leading Israeli
cellular company established a unique plan called 'Orange Gush' that
offered an attractive fair for calls amongst the 7000 subscribers living in
the Gush.3 Orange continues to offer this service today, after the
disengagement.
• Katif.net – the website currently most identified with the Gush (see
later).
• Other websites associated with Gush Katif, such as the site of Vaad
Mityashvey Gush Katif, www.4katif.org.il , and sites of local
communities such as the site of the evacuees from Neve Dkalim who
reside in Nitzan, ndn.org.il
• General Interest web sites – such as ynet.co.il or walla.co.il – two of
Israel's largest web portals.
• Mailing lists –created by community coordinators or private individuals.
• And of course, television broadcasts.
Quite a few studies examined the coverage of the disengagement by the
media (i.e. Roth, 2005; Sela, 2006; Keshev Center, 2006; Tenenboim-
Weinblatt, 2008), as well as studies that looked at media influence (Tsfati &
Cohen, 2005; cf. Sheafer, 2005). Almozlinos (2006) conducted a study on the
uses of ‘small media’ – synagogue pamphlets- before the disengagement.
The current study is unique in its focus both on media use by the evacuees
after the disengagement, and on bottom-up communication over the Internet,
namely the use by some of the evacuees of virtual communities to
3 Data provided by Vaad Mityashvey Gush Katif, May 2008.
Katif.net
8
compensate for the loss of their physical communities. Virtual communities
bring together people with common interests and enable continuing
communication over the Internet (Haythornthwaite, 2002; Matzat & De-Vos,
2000; Wellman & Gulia, 1999). In this study I look at the unique case of the
Katif.net community, where an 'offline', on-the-ground, 'brick-and-mortar'
community, composed of the residents of Gush Katif, 'disintegrated' in the
physical sense yet continues to survive in a virtual setting on the Internet.
Of all the abovementioned media which can be used to maintain contact by
members of disintegrated communities, the Internet is unique for its
interactivity, ease of access and usage, and global reach. Israel has an
extremely high penetration of broadband internet access per capita, and the
Hebrew language Internet is very well developed,4 which makes the use of the
Internet for such purposes even more appealing.
While many websites identify with Gush Katif and the struggle against the
disengagement, Katif.net had clearly been the leading communication and
organizational hub for residents of the Gush and their supporters, both before
and right after the disengagement (Roth, 2005). Katif.net is a private website
managed by the Sender family, primarily by Motti Sender – a former resident
of the Gush who lived in Ganey Tal before the disengagement and today lives
in Yad Binyamin. Mr. Sender is the owner of the site and with the assistance
of his son Elchanan, host and manage Katif.net as a non-profit project with no
commercial or institutional support. Prior to the disengagement, Mr. Sender
was a farmer as well as a photographer. According to Mr. Sender,5 the site
was first established in order to document the daily life in the Gush, as a PR
tool, and also to bolster sales of the local produce of the Gush. Almost from
the outset the site included discussion forums, weekly Torah commentaries,
and event listings which made it a popular destination for the Gush residents.
As the site’s popularity grew, Sender found himself struggling to keep up with
the rapidly mounting user base and even offered to transfer control of the site
to the regional council - to make it the 'official' web site for the region. But
4 A 2007 survey by Dun & Bradstreet Israel shows that 72% of Israeli households are online, 95% of which have a
broadband connection. Adult Internet users surf the Web 37.4 hours on average per month, which is the second
highest in the world. See http://www.dbisrael.co.il/NewsShowHeb1.asp?idnum=412
5 The following is based on an interview with Motti Sender, April 2008.
Katif.net
9
there was no interest at the time on behalf of the council. Three years later the
regional council created its own web site, but the site was overshadowed by
Katif.net’s strong and vibrant user base.
When news of the disengagement plan first broke, Katif.net rapidly began
functioning as the main organizational hub for residents and outside
supporters to protest the government’s plan for evacuation (Roth, 2005). The
site quickly branded itself as the leader of the anti-disengagement movement,
creating a virtual space for activists to discuss strategies and tactics of
resistance. By virtue of the site’s popularity, and due its clever uses of
interactivity and rich graphics, it aided in recruiting volunteers and protestors,
and provided diligent documentation, with photos and video, of the various
protests. Here is a short summary of protest activities orchestrated through
the site.
Protest Headquarters (http://www.katif.net/mate/)
Katif.net established numerous mini-sites focused on the anti-disengagement
movement. First and foremost, the “Protest Headquarters” (Mate Hamaavak)
mini-site served as a grassroots hub for all of the various protests and
demonstrations. One could find promotional materials, reports from the field,
commentary and motivational essays dedicated to the struggle against the
disengagement, with the logo of Katif.net and the site address on top.
The Israeli Chain (http://www.katif.net/chain)
Taking advantage of its special status as the online organizational hub for the
anti-disengagement movement, Katif.net took a major part in organizing the
ambitious protest of the 'Israeli chain' described above. “The human chain
was meant to demonstrate strength, perseverance, and national unity” as
described by Sender. The site helped individuals select a spot for themselves
along the chain's route. The collaborative effort included 130,000 volunteers,
many of whom chose their location along the chain using the interface found
in the site.
The chain took place on July 25th, 2004, one year before the disengagement
was to begin, and two days before the 9th of Av festival – a Jewish day of
mourning for the destruction of the second temple in 70 ad. The human chain
Katif.net
10
mini-site opened by Katif.net, as shown in figure 1, cleverly organized the flow
and position of volunteers along the length of the chain to ensure it had no
missing links along its 90km route. The chain marked the height of Katif.net's
popularity, and during the day one million visitors (!) accessed the site,
resulting in the crash of the server that hosted it.6
Figure 1: The site guided users to the ideal spot for them to stand in the chain
The “100 Demonstrations"
Another popular mini-site on Katif.net was the “100 Demonstrations” site. In
100 different cities and towns across the country, Katif.net assisted in
recruiting local coordinators and youth leaders to plan demonstrations and
protests, culminating in a simultaneous, 100 city wide demonstration on the
14th of October, 2004. The goals of this demonstration were to establish local
headquarters in support of the struggle against the disengagement
(http://www.katif.net/new.php?id=5970), and reshape public opinion towards
better understanding the nature of the struggle for the Gush - not only as a
private struggle by the individuals who live there but by people nation-wide for
the future of the country. The organizers of Katif.net covered the
6 The following is based on an interview with Motti Sender, April 2008.
Katif.net
11
demonstrations in 12 different cities and uploaded video and photos to the site
(http://video.katif.net/).
Plant-a-Tree (http://www.katif.net/2b )
In January of 2005, the site added another section, “Plant-a-Tree in Gush
Katif”. Visitors to the site could make donations to have a tree or flower
planted in their name on the grounds of the Gush. Donations were
accompanied by an official printed certificate lauding the visitors' commitment
to the Gush and its continued settlement. The site held a second tree-planting
fundraiser after the disengagement – where in this case the trees were strictly
virtual (https://www.katif.net/~new/tmp/2b/planting-he.php) and the goal was
to raise donations to support the ongoing functioning of the site.
Another fundraising initiative was the “Trimmed Menorah” (Hebrew:
Hahanukiah Haktumah) -- a play on the Hebrew words for orange (katom)
and amputated, or trimmed (katum). After the disengagement, around the
festival of Chanukah in December 2005, the site opened a new project which
introduced a virtual menorah
(https://www.katif.net/pirsom/chanoka/index.htm), asking visitors to make
donations and fill in the menorah with orange cubes (See figure 2). These
donations were put towards the continued operation of Katif.net following the
disengagement.
Katif.net
12
Figure 2: The 'Trimmed Menorah'
Petitions
Over the course of five years, Palestinians fired close to 6000 mortar shells at
the various settlements in the Gush. To bring exposure to these attacks, a
'mortar counter' was placed on the site which kept track of each new mortar
attack and sent messages to the site's members and visitors. In addition,
17,000 signatures were collected for a petition calling on the prime minister
and defense minister to take action against the attacks
(http://www.katif.net/patzmar/bpatzmar.php). Another petition was called
“Expulsion, No! – Settlement, Yes!” calling on then prime minister Ariel Sharon
to stop his plans for the disengagement and instead to foster growth and
further settlement in Gush Katif ( http://www.katif.net/altakor/).
The Site after the Disengagement
Mr. Sender and his family were not sure of what they should do with the site
after the disengagement. As demonstrated above, the site gradually served as
Katif.net
13
a rallying point and organizational hub with a finite goal, canceling the
disengagement. Once it was actually carried out, the site's primary content –
news flashes, protest information, petitions, and anti-disengagement
commentary – became somewhat irrelevant. In the end, Motti Sender posted
a message on the front page of the site saying
More than five years ago, we started the Ketif.net picture album of the
Gush, which evolved into the official website for Gush Katif – which was at
the disposal of the residents of the Gush right and all the 'orange'
supporters in Israel and worldwide, up until the expulsion. After the
expulsion, we made a strategic decision to continue and operate the site for
our brothers, the residents of Gish Katif, and for all the hundreds of
thousands of our supporters on each site. Today, December 15th, 2005, we
are happy to air together the new Katif.net site. The uniqueness of the new
site is the opening of 1800 personal family sites for each family from the
uprooted Gush who can, starting today, post directly to the site news,
updates, personal stories, blogs, and pictures from the past, present and,
God willing the future while building our new homes and returning to Gush
Katif. All of these personal sites are now connected to the main page of
Katif.net.7
As the reality of the disengagement and facts on the ground changed, so too
did Katif.net. The original Katif.net (http://www.katif.net/?old=1) dealt primarily
with the struggle against the disengagement – as a tool to organize and lead
the nationwide protests.
Once the battle over the disengagement was over, the site morphed into a
memorial to both the struggle as well as the settlements and homes that made
up the Gush. In addition, the site started offering critical services to the former
residents, as well as helping the dispersed evacuees of the Gush maintain
contact. The site served a particularly important role in the days immediately
following the disengagement when all of the dispersed families needed
information and advice from neighbors and friends.
7 http://www.new.katif.net/text.php?page=68 (English translation mine).
Katif.net
14
To facilitate this communication, each family from the 1800 that lived in the
Gush was given a personal mini-site within the platform of Katif.net. Also
included in the package was a Katif.net email account and an online picture
album where the family could post pictures of their former home in the Gush.
At the time of writing, however, there are only 165 active family pages on the
site, that take advantage of these options. 8
Methodology
Katif.net demonstrates a unique phenomenon where a community that once
thrived in the physical realm migrates into the virtual realm.9 The re-grouping
of community members online is intriguing case-study for three main reasons.
First and primarily, the inhabitants of Gush Katif did not choose to remove
their community from the physical realm, they were forced to evacuate by
mandate of the law of the disengagement. Secondly, the settlers of the Gush
spent many years building and developing the physical community. It was not
merely an experience or phase in their lives like serving in the army, but rather
the entirety of their lives in their homes with their families. Furthermore, the
years leading up to the disengagement bonded these families even more
through the crucible of their shared hardships and struggle against their
impending evacuation. A third point is the homogenous ideological and
religious background throughout the Gush, which created a particularly strong
sense of community both within the Gush and with like-minded supporters
throughout the country. Thus, is it interesting to see to what extent the Internet
can preserve the strong communal bonds that existed 'on the ground'.
Considering the nature of the disengagement, with its poor management of
the evacuees described in depth in the comptroller's report (2009), the
communication media used by the evacuees have had two significant roles:
maintaining social cohesion in spite of dispersion and separation, and
pressuring the various authorities to take further action in their cause. The
8 Interview with Motti Sender, April 2008.
9 The only comparable case-study I came across at the time of writing is Skinner's (forthcoming) account of the
residents of the Island of Montserrat who had to evacuate the island after a volcanic eruption, and regrouped online.
More on disengagement and migration from virtual communities, see Papargyris and Poulymenakou (2009), Pearce
and Artemesia (2007), and Kazmer (2007).
Katif.net
15
study looks at how Katif.net fulfills these roles by asking who uses the site and
for which purposes; how it compares to other media outlets; the sense of
virtual community (SOVC) and its determinants; and, finally, the correlation
between SOVC and various media uses.
To study these questions we used an Internet-based survey, run on the
popular survey engine Survey Monkey. The respondents got to the survey by
clicking on a banner that was prominently placed on the Katif.net homepage,
with cooperation from the Sender family. The banner was on the site for a
total of five weeks, starting four weeks before the third anniversary of the
disengagement and continuing for one week after. In addition, Motti Sender
sent a mailing to all of the registered users on the site with a link to the survey.
The survey was filled out by 152 people.
Results
According to data supplied by Mr. Sender, during 2007, Katif.net had roughly
100,000 hits per day; the most popular month was July (the anniversary of the
disengagement), with around 150,000 hits. As Table 1 shows, more than half
the visitors to the site report they visit it 2-3 times a week, or even daily. The
mean amount of time spent at the site, according to survey responders' report,
is fifteen minutes.
=-= TABLE 1 HERE =-=
I wanted to learn what role the site fulfills in the lives of respondents. As
mentioned above, the evacuees have a number of 'unresolved issues', i.e.
moving to permanent housing, employment, compensation, the need to keep
in touch socially, and more. I asked about five such issues: getting social
updates, political updates, reading blogs or opinion pieces, writing a blogs or
opinion pieces, and reading e-mails.
=-=-= TABLE 2 HERE =-=-=
=-=-= TABLE 3 HERE =-=-=
Katif.net
16
Tables 2 and 3 show that getting social and political updates are significant
goals of the visitors to Katif.net. Reading blogs, and, even more so, writing
blogs or checking e-mails were less popular. Notably, on a scale of 1- "not
used at all for social updates" to 5- "used extensively for social updates", the
average score of the site across the five categories was 3.78 (table 3).
After looking at what people do when on Katif.net, we analyzed how it
compares to other media they use.
=-=-= TABLE 4 HERE =-=-=
As Table 4 demonstrates, Katif.net proves to be pivotal across all categories
(compared to other media), most notably for maintaining contact (scoring 3.92
out of 5), more than SMS (3.29) and meetings (3.23); as well as getting
relevant news updates (4.37), followed – interestingly - by synagogue
pamphlets (3.45). The site is also important for creating content (3.42) again
followed by synagogue pamphlets (2.46).
The site is also more important than other media sources (although less
pivotal) for the other two functions asked about: getting employment
information (2.61), where it was followed by other websites associated with
the Gush (2.28); and expressing political support or protest (3.02), where it
was followed by meetings and conferences (2.64). Note the dominance on
this list of 'small media' such as niche websites and synagogue pamphlets,
above and beyond the traditional media outlets.
Next we inquired about the sense of (virtual) community of site visitors (note
that here we refer to all members of the Katif.net online community, not just
those who were evacuated from the Gush). We wanted to gauge the
participants' sense of virtual community based on a scale developed by
Blanchard (2007, 2008). This scale is composed of 18 questions measuring
the degree to which a person feels embedded in his or her community. The
scale is a modified version of the classic scale of McMillan and Chavis (1986)
which is frequently used to measure the sense of (offline) communities. The
Katif.net
17
SOVC we measured in the survey yielded a mean of 5.3 out of 7 - close to the
mean of 5.22 out of 7, which Blanchard (2008) measured with 277 members
of 11 bulletin boards from Babycenter.com (composed primarily of women).
Higher than the SOVC of 3.19 which was measured in a group of 216
members of five online groups, which were non-randomly picked from a list of
listservs and usenet newsgroups.
=-=-= TABLE 5 HERE =-=-=
But which demographic variables have an impact over Katif.net members'
sense of virtual community? As shown in Table 5, Katif.net members' SOVC
is significantly and negatively correlated with year of birth and income, Thus,
the older and less affluent (financially) members of the Katif.net community
tend to report higher sense of community than younger, more affluent
members. Note that year of birth was coded as a four-digit number (i.e. 1970,
not 70). Thus, for each 10 years of age, the SOVC is .4 higher.10
Finally I examined how the sense of (virtual) community correlates with media
usage, and how uses of various media by the members of the Katif.net
community correlate with one another. The results (table 6) show significant
correlations between most variables- 12 out of 15 correlations are significant,
although the strength of correlation varies.
Most notably, the sense of virtual community strongly correlates with usage of
the site for social updates, so the more one uses the site for social updates,
the stronger one feels embedded in the virtual community. In fact, receiving
social updates from Katif.net (as well as reading blogs and opinion pieces) is
positively and significantly correlated with all other uses of the site, i.e. the
more one uses the site for social updates, the more one uses the site for all
other purposes.
=-=-= TABLE 6 HERE =-=-=
10 Family income was coded as a dichotomous variable ranging from 1 (family income a lot below average), to 5 (a lot
above average).
Katif.net
18
Discussion and Conclusions
The idea of connecting people through virtual communities has begun to
percolate into the conscious of the public/private discourse, and to the
practices of social movements, parties and even governments.
In the 17th and 18th centuries, in parallel with economic, social and
technological transformations of daily experiences, the use of the word
‘community’ in English expanded to include “the idea of a group of people who
hold something in common… or who share a common sense of identity even
if they do not live in a single locale” (Cole, 2002, p.xxiii). Gradually, the
existence of common physical meeting-places has not been considered a
necessary condition for a group to be denoted as a ‘community’; nowadays
communities are “based on what we do with others, rather than where we live
with others” (Haythornthwaite, 2002, p.159).
The application of the label ‘community’ to Internet-assisted associations has
been popularized by Rheingold’s (2000) influential book about the WELL
community in the San Francisco bay area (cf. Smith, 1992). Such an
application explicitly undermines one of the deep-rooted dimensions of
‘communities’, i.e. geographical proximity among members. ‘Virtual’
communities complete the separation of communities from ‘physical’ spaces
and enable a “fundamental liberation from place” (Wellman, 2001, p. 238).
For many Internet users such associations are important sources of goods,
information, support, and sense of belonging (Wellman, 2001). Others deem
virtual communities as motors of reciprocity, collaboration and civic renewal
(Connolly, 2001 and the references therein). Such communities can also
serve a jump-start to direct members to relevant collective efforts - due to their
abilities to draw a large number of people and function as meeting-places for
many self-selected like-minded people (Lev-On, 2009b). Due to their scale
and the self-selection of members, virtual associations can turn into focal sites
that attract many potential contributors to collective action – which is evident
in collective actions such as citizen-based campaigns to re-evaluate and
reconsider public policies, or orchestrated demonstrations and rallies (Lev-
On, 2009b).
Katif.net
19
Typically such collective efforts are of interest to large numbers of people, but
at the absence of organizational infrastructure such causes may not attract
and mobilize enough support (i.e. Olson, 1965). Such collective efforts require
the existence of easily accessed focal points to which organizers, activists and
sympathizers can converge to coordinate their efforts. Let us refer to such
focal points as ‘organizational hubs’.
Katif.net has been of utmost importance in relation to the protests against the
disengagement, functioning as such an organizational hub for protesters and
supporters. It offered efficient management of a large group of like-minded
individuals fighting for a cause. This study shows that it is an essential means
of communication after the disengagement as well – to bind evacuees
together, and to allow them easy access to information that can be of
assistance.
Visitors to the site also report a significant sense of virtual community, which
correlates with the usage visitors make to the site. i.e. the sense of virtual
community strongly correlates with usage of the site for social updates, so the
more one uses the site for social updates, the stronger one feels embedded in
the virtual community. In fact, receiving social updates from Katif.net (as well
as reading blogs and opinion pieces) is positively and significantly correlated
with all other uses of the site, i.e. the more one uses the site for social
updates, the more one uses the site for all other purposes
The case of Katif.net nicely demonstrates the value that the Internet can serve
in the shaping and re-shaping of our communities, indicating that the Internet
not only connects people across the globe, but also people that reside in
geographical proximity (i.e. Cohill & Kavanaugh, 1999; Matei & Bell-Rokeach,
2002). Academic studies of collaboration online often examine how projects
like Wikipedia thrive, benefiting from content contributed by volunteers world-
wide with no prior acquaintance and prospect of a common future (Lev-On &
Hardin, 2007; Bimber, Flanagin & Stohl, 2005). What differentiates Katif.net
from these other collaborations is that the people who use the site have very
deep and strong personal connections independent of the Internet. The
results presented here show that the site is a vehicle to express and nurture
those pre-existing bonds, even as the community on-the-ground has
deterritorialized.
Katif.net
20
More so, Katif.net serves as a replacement for the failings of the official
response to residents' needs as members of displaced communities. The
mismanaged relocation efforts drove many residents of the Gush to Katif.net
to share tips, vent, or simply interact in the face of significant events in their
lives.11
In the case of Katif.net, the website seemed more in tune with the evacuees'
needs, and it provided them a superior path to address their grievances and
needs than using the traditional media outlets. Interestingly, and perhaps
counter-intuitively, the older and less affluent (financially) members of the
Katif.net community tend to report higher sense of community.
It seems that Katif.net and the relocated communities of the former Gush Katif
represent an excellent resource for the study of social cohesiveness under
adverse conditions, and of the role of the Internet to create and foster such
bonds. In a continuing study I would analyze how the entire population of
evacuees from Gush Katif refer to the Internet and to Katif.net in particular,
and if they attribute the same importance to the site as its followers do.
Still, it seems that even after three years of living in new, but still temporary,
communities, many former residents of the Gush still feel strongly about using
the Internet, and specifically Katif.net to stay updated and, more importantly,
maintain community ties and keep in touch.
11 For equivalent reports of online interactions ‘filling the gap’ when government fails to act as an effective manager,
see Leach (2005) on a Web-based campaign which aimed at revising MMR immunization policies; Shklovski, Palen
and Sutton (2008) on the uses of virtual communities after hurricane Katrina; and Lev-On (2009a) on uses of such
communities for interpersonal communication and mobilization during the war between Israel and Hizbullah (2006).
Katif.net
21
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#Percent
Everyday5334.9%
2-3 Times a week3321.7%
Once a week2113.8%
Once every 2 weeks159.9%
Less than once every 2 weeks
3019.7%
Total152
Table 1: The frequency of visits to the site
#
%
#
%
#
%
#
%
#
%
Not used at all8574.6%8872.7%4433.6%2518.1%1711.7%
Rarely used65.3%1411.6%2418.3%2820.3%128.3%
Sometimes used1210.5%1411.6%2821.4%3827.5%1812.4%
Often used21.8%32.5%1612.2%3424.6%3725.5%
Extensively used97.9%21.7%1914.5%139.4%6142.1%
Total
114
100.0%
121
100.0%
131
100.0%
138
100.0%
145
100.0%
Social Updates Checking EmailWriting Blogs Reading Blogs Political Updates
Table 2: Functioning of Katif.net according to Users' Reports
MeanStd. Dev.N
Social Updates3.781.38145
Political Updates2.871.24138
Blog Reading2.561.43131
Blog Writing1.490.91121
Checking Email
1.63
1.23
114
Table 3: Functioning of Katif.net according to Users' Reports
Political Support/ Protest
Creating Content
Employment Info Relevant Political Info Social Updates
Mean Sd N Mean Sd N Mean Sd N Mean Sd N Mean Sd N
Meetings and Conferences 2.64 1.61 86 2.35 1.49 80 1.69 1.15 84 3.02 1.55 96 3.23 1.27 101
Shabbat Pamphlets 2.12 1.47 84 2.46 1.63 79 1.95 1.31 82 3.45 1.46 97 3.19 1.56 100
Print Media 1.72 1.22 83 1.78 1.24 80 2.03 1.4 80 2.78 1.45 95 2.38 1.33 100
Radio 1.6 1.14 82 1.42 0.91 77 1.28 0.64 81 2.26 1.36 96 1.72 1.06 99
Cellphones/SMS 1.8 1.28 82 2.01 1.43 78 1.51 1.01 80 2.57 1.48 94 3.29 1.53 92
Television 1.53 1.04 80 1.46 1 79 1.32 0.75 82 2.18 1.4 98 1.74 1.22 97
Katif.net 3.02 1.7 85 3.42 1.68 83 2.61 1.58 88 4.37 0.92 97 3.92 1.24 96
Sites related to Gush Katif 2.35 1.64 82 2.31 1.61 77 2.28 1.6 82 2.8 1.57 92 2.66 1.53 94
General purpose websites 2.57 1.63 81 1.81 1.33 79 1.63 1.13 79 2.58 1.5 93 2.13 1.34 92
Mailing Lists 1.88 1.31 77 2.36 1.56 78 1.87 1.36 77 2.69 1.6 94 2.89 1.54 93
Table 4: Katif.net compared to other media
Unstandardized
Coefficients
Standardized
Coefficients
B Std.
Error
Beta
t Sig.
(Constant) 83.134 25.643 3.242 .002
Gender -.457 .369 -.139 -1.239 .220
Income -.296 .146 -.234 -2.034 .046
Religiosity .752 .473 .175 1.590 .116
Years of Study .024 .048 .056 .496 .622
Year of Birth -.041 .013 -.350 -3.104 .003
Table 5: Determinants of Sense of Virtual Community
SOVC Social Updates Political
Updates
Reading Blogs/
Opinion Pieces
Writing Blogs/
Opinion Pieces
Reading e-
mails
Pearson Correlation 1 .451(**)
.209(*) .275(**) .090 .129
Sig. (2-tailed) . .000 .032 .005 .399 .235
SOVC (Sense of
Virtual Community)
N 116 112 105 101 91 8 7
Pearson Correlation .451(**) 1 .293(**) .249(**) .216(*) .257(**)
Sig. (2-tailed) .000 . .00 1 .004 .017 .006
Social Updates
N 112 145 137 130 121 114
Pearson Correlation .209(*) .29 3(**) 1 .408(**)
.199(*) .105
Sig. (2-tailed) .032 .00 1 . .000 .029 .268
Political Updates
N 105 137 138 128 121 114
Pearson Correlation .275(**)
.249(**)
.408(**) 1 .389(**)
.266(**)
Sig. (2-tailed) .005 .00 4 .000 . .000 .004
Reading Blogs/
Opinion Pieces
N 101 130 128 131 119 113
Pearson Correlation .090 .216(*) .199(*) .389(**) 1 .296(**)
Sig. (2-tailed) .399 .01 7 .029 .000 . .002
Writing Blogs/
Opinion Pieces
N 91 121 121 119 121 109
Pearson Correlation .129 .257(**)
.105 .266(**) .296(**) 1
Sig. (2-tailed) .235 .00 6 .268 .004 .002 .
Reading e-mails
N 87 114 114 113 109 114
** Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed).
* Correlation is significant at the 0.05 lev el (2-tailed).
Table 6: Correlations amongst Media Usage and Sense of Virtual Community
