Helping out Sderot kids
As the start of the school yearis here, Sderot kids are getting ready for classes and tests, accompanied by the expected routine of 'red alert' alarms and rocket explosions. Although it is uncertain whether Palestinian rocket fire will cease so that Sderot children can begin the year in peace, there are people outside working to help ease the beginning of the school year for Sderot children in other important ways.
Mati and Malcolm Feuerstein initiated Backpacks for Kids two years ago when the Second Lebanon War in the summer of 2006 financially crippled many families in northern Israel. Purchasing backpacks, notebooks, and other school material for kids in the war torn region became even more difficult for already low-income families. Consequently Backpacks for Kids, a volunteer-driven initiative, raises money to purchase backpacks and other school supplies, along with clothing and toys, for kids in need of them. Older children volunteer to pack the backpacks.
A rocket-proof tractor
Working under the threat of Palestinian mortar fire and snipers has become a daily reality for Israeli farmers plowing in the fields of the western Negev. There is no other place in the world where farming is as dangerous an occupation as it is on the Israeli border with Gaza. It comes as no surprise, then, that Mifram, a leading Israeli firm that develops and manufactures security products, has designed the world's first armored tractor to serve the safety necessities of these Israeli farmers.
The armored tractor is designed for farmers living in combat zones and allows them to safely till their fields, by remote control if necessary, amid mortar shells and flying bullets. Mifram, a representative of the John Deere tractor company, developed the tractor in cooperation with the Israeli military, meeting the standards of both the military and the Transportation Ministry.
Knesset lobby group for Sderot?
On Monday morning, July 28th, a delegation of Sderot residents traveled to the Israeli Knesset to raise their concerns over the blatant misconduct of the Israel Tax Authority (ITA) in handling compensation files for property damages filed by Sderot residents.
The Israeli government has delegated the ITA to handle, in accordance with Israeli law, issues of compensation for damage in times of war. Sderot residents whose property has been damaged by rocket attacks from Gaza must file their case with the ITA in order to receive compensation from the Israeli government.
Sderot Media Center facilitated the delegation's trip to the Knesset, after publishing an investigative report six months earlier on Israel's leading investigative news site, www.nfc.co.il , that revealed the ITA dealt harshly and arbitrarily with cases of property damage in Sderot caused by Kassam rocket attacks by terrorists in Gaza.
Comments (1)'Normal' living
It's been a long time - but the phrase "no news is good news" is not true in our case. It's scary to think what the Hamas is cooking up for us in Gaza.
Is there anyone that believes that they want some sort of peace? We all know that as we are seeing more and more shelters being built in Sderot (for private houses, banks, stores, schools, parks, etc.), the Hamas in Gaza is planning an all-out war.
But it's true - the peace and quiet that we have now in Sderot is very much appreciated. As apprehensive as I am, I still enjoy being able to let my children ride bikes outside (and not in our living room), play in the community playgrounds (not just in the new "kassam proof" one), picnic on the grass. It's amazing how easily the attacks are forgotten and how we are slowly getting used to "normal" living.
Who is fooling who?
The other day in Sderot, I made an astonishing observation. I was walking from the office after a long day at work to catch some sleep when I noticed I was not walking alone. Usually the city is deadly quiet once the sun sets, as parents refuse to let children play outside in the dark. Families prefer to remain at home together after a long day of siren alerts and rocket explosions.
High school kids don't ride around as much with the music blasting and teenagers don't walk around listening to their Ipods in case the 'tzeva adom', red color alert sounds. There's not much to do at night except maybe watch a movie and hope that Hamas rocket launchers decide to go to sleep, so that those us living in Sderot can relax just a little bit.
The falafel and the bulldozer
Coming to Jerusalem to work for a few days seemed like a welcome break from the Kassam rockets that Arab terrorists fire at Sderot. In Jerusalem, the method Arab terrorists prefer to kill random civilians is suicide-bombing. The Israeli army has largely controlled that kind of murder by building a barrier to prevent Arab terrorists from infiltrating Israel. Whenever I come to Jerusalem, I feel liberated, because I do not automatically look around me for a wall to crouch behind as I walk down the street. People living in Sderot develop skills to use when the alarm announces that a rocket is flying in their general direction and will detonate in about fifteen seconds. We automatically, almost unconsciously, look for potential shelter wherever we go. In Jerusalem I need not do this.
The truth is right there
I've just come back from England after spending a whirlwind of two weeks talking non-stop about Sderot and the rocket situation in southern Israel.
I spoke at six different synagogues, covering basically all the different communities in London; Reform, Liberal, Conservative, Orthodox, and Charedi, as well as several schools and functions.
There were two underlying themes that reoccurred during my first visit to London. The first was that the English don't do things last minute. The second went something like this, 'thank goodness for the ceasefire with Hamas.'
Presenting Sderot to England
This is my first trip to London, England to talk about the rocket situation in Sderot and the western Negev. Through my media presentations and talks, English audiences for the first time are seeing video footage of rocket attacks and life under fire in Sderot.
Many times after a lecture, people have come up to me and stated that they had no idea how terrible the rocket situation in Sderot and the western Negev was in reality. "They call these homemade rockets on the news," told me one lady after I spoke at her synagogue in St. John's Wood. "What the media doesn't show is that these 'homemade rockets' can cause so much destruction."
Differentiating between those killed
Shalom from Sderot!
I haven't written for a long time since not much has changed. . . well at least in the government's policy of "let them suffer, we are involved in other important things. . ."
Three people have been killed in the past month:
Al Jazeera and Sderot
On Thursday evening, May 29, 2008 a group of Israeli and Arab college students were aired live on Al Jazeera from Haifa where they participated in a special two-hour program. The college students, studying at Tel Aviv, Ben Gurion, Haifa, and Bar Ilan universities, were asked questions about the future of the state of Israel and about the history and present situation of its citizens.
As one of three students from Bar Ilan University invited to a special Al Jazeera program about Israel, I found myself on an usually warm night debating the future state of Israel with Fayid, Ranin, and several other Arab students studying at Israeli universities.
The whole evening was a bit surreal. Here I was, in Haifa, taking about the future of the state of Israel with people who clearly had a very different idea of the Jewish state. All this on the last TV station I would ever imagine appearing on to talk about Sderot--Al Jazeera!
About this blog Living with Rockets
A glimpse into life under fire as told by inhabitants of Sderot, young people who devote their time to volunteer in the city and by writers from the Sderot Media Center.
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