Living with Rockets: Welcome to the real world of Sderot, Jimmy Carter

A few eyebrows went up when Jimmy Carter visited Sderot yesterday on Tuesday April 15.

Sderot residents were relatively bewildered with Carter's visit to the rocket-shelled city, in light of his planned visit with the Palestinian terror organization, Hamas and its exiled leader Khaled Mashaal in Syria, later in the week.

"Today Carter comes to visit the city that Hamas terrorizes with rockets and later he will speak to the Hamas leaders who advocate this rocket fire," said one Sderot onlooker as Carter arrived with his security personnel into the city. "His visit to Sderot doesn't make any sense."

In fact, many of the residents in Sderot felt that the entire Carter visit was a joke on the residents.

"He looks like an old politician who is bored, looking for something to do," says Hamutal Ben-Shitrit, a local Sderot photographer who photographed Carter's visit at the Sderot Police Station, where the former US president viewed the hundreds of Kassams rockets stored away.

Indeed in the past two months, Carter, who is 83, has been the fourth US politician to visit Sderot.

"Sderot is becoming one of the top tourist attractions in the country for politicians visiting Israel," says Ben-Shitrit.

Meanwhile it is the residents in Sderot and the western Negev who are paying a heavy price for life under constant rocket fire.

Only a month ago, on March 26, Michelle and Claude Ktorza lost their store in a rocket attack. It was the second time in the past five months that their store, located in the center of the Sderot's market place, has been heavily damaged by a rocket explosion.

"We opened the store 30 years ago," says Claude. "Our financial future was set with this store. My wife and I are both in our late sixties and planned to retire in the next few years. Now with this last rocket explosion, all our future plans have been destroyed. Thirty years of hard work for future savings and a pension plan disappeared within those few seconds," finishes Claude.

His wife, Michelle, looks exhausted and strained, but she tries reassuring her husband that things will work out. "The first time our business was hit by a rocket, we had photos of the inventory to show the Israel Tax Authority exactly what had been in the store before it was hit."

"But this time around, we have no photos of the inventory or the items in the store" replies Claude. "We didn't think this would happen again. It will now be months before we receive any reparations for damages."

The rocket explosion occurred about a meter away from the Ktorza's store. Rocket shrapnel heavily damaged the store, destroying the goods on display, while fire from the explosion burned most of the inventory stored away.

Michelle does not know if she will be able to reopen the store again. "It all depends on the amount of financial reparations we receive from the government and it will be a while before the Israel Tax Authority lets us know."

Claude who is 68 and Michelle, 65, immigrated from France to Israel, and settled in Sderot in 1955. They were the generation which built Sderot, with dreams for a secure and stable future in the city.

"What are we supposed to do now?" asks Claude.

The Ktorzas' also have a daughter who suffers from a muscular atrophy living with them. Their son who suffered from the same condition, died a few years ago.

As Jimmy Carter leaves Sderot with the news crew and media following him, the Ktorza family sits distraught in their living room, wondering how their bills will be paid in the coming months.