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.
Comments (20)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:
Church Group visits Sderot
Members of the Ecumenical Accompaniment Programme in Palestine and Israel (EAPPI), a program of the World Council of Churches, based in Geneva , visited Sderot this past Sunday, March 30.
"This is our first visit to Sderot," said Valentina Maggiulli, the Jerusalem local program coordinator for EAPPI. "We know the situation in the West Bank and Gaza very well. We felt it was important to see the situation in Sderot as well."
EAPPI has church personnel stationed in Hebron , Yanoun, Tulkarem, Jerusalem , Jayyous and Bethlehem . Personnel come from countries all over Europe to help negotiate resolutions and facilitate peace activities in strategic locations.
McCain in Sderot
On a quiet Wednesday afternoon, a helicopter landed in Sderot with two US senators on board. Republican presidential nominee, John McCain and US senator Joseph Lieberman, who toured Israel for two days, made time to stop by this rocket-battered town in the western Negev.
They were received with the typical small-town warmth. "We are happy that they have come. They were brave to come," said one Sderot mother of the American visitors. She stops to watch the security vehicles and black sedans race by as McCain and Leiberman, accompanied by Israeli defense minister Ehud Barak rush to visit the Amar family whose home was hit by a rocket three months before.
Skewed perceptions
Last Sunday, several South African diplomats and a political science professor from an American university came to visit Sderot. It was a typical tour through Sderot with rather atypical reactions from the visitors.
Usually, foreign visitors express shock and sympathy towards the victims of rocket terror. I was then, more than surprised when the visitors asked a Sderot grandmother whose home was recently wrecked by a Kassam rocket, the following questions.
"Do you feel for the Palestinian grandmother who is in the same condition as you?"
"What would you say to the women in Gaza who are also suffering?"
An eerie week
Shalom from Sderot!
It was a very eerie week - it was so quiet and the helicopters and fighter planes reminded us of the hornet's nest less than a kilometer (1/2 a mile) away in Gaza. We were able to function normally for almost a whole week (last Friday until last night, Wednesday). Of course, we still knew that, though we had a small breather, it wouldn't be forever.
A typical day in Sderot
I begin the week working for Sderot Media Center in Sderot, realizing that I am coming to work in a middle of a war-zone. There are all kinds of indicators of Sderot being a rocket-shelled city besides the sirens and rocket explosions. Streets are emptier than usual, Sapir college usually teeming with life, has few students on campus, schools have let out traumatized students early, and the list goes on.
Simply speaking to residents makes one understand that the Israelis of this region live in fear for 24 hours, seven days a week, even on days where there are only three rocket attacks.
Everyday errands like buying food in the supermarket or mailing letters in the post office have become routines of terror and fear as these routines are punctuated by red alert sirens and rocket attacks.
Teaching the value of life
Last week, a group of 40 American tourists, from Michigan, California and Florida, came to visit Sderot. It was their first time in Sderot, and probably the first time that any one of them had visited a rocket-shelled region. The group was pretty cheerful, although several expressed their fear of actually being in the city.
I am always encouraged by groups like these who come to Sderot to show their solidarity with the shell-shocked residents. Having grown up in Maine all my life, I know that to come to a city like Sderot at a time like this, is not easy. The residents of Sderot, however, have been living through this rocket terror for the past seven years. Not a day goes by, where they can experience life as I knew it back in Maine - quiet, peaceful, and safe.
Sderot in spades - a city of hearts
I spent the day in Sderot recently -- a city of 25,000 very frightened people. Many throughout Israel, and even abroad, are doing whatever they can to support this beleaguered city, and I had the opportunity to escort a family from New Jersey who came to Sderot to deliver stuffed animals to young children in pre-schools in the city. I had been in Sderot quite a few times in the past year, and while I was able to sympathize with the people there -- and even admire them greatly -- I was never able to identify with the fear. Yesterday, that all changed.
Our first stop was the home of Nati and Nana Engel. Nati suffered critical injury in a Kassam attack in June 2006. As his recovery has progressed, his wife Nana has become OneFamily's fulltime volunteer coordinator in Sderot. She knows everyone in town, has personal experience in what each victim's family must contend with, and is easily one of the most resourceful and matter-of-fact people I have ever met. As we came into her cozy and well-kept home -- 50 meters from where a rocket landed just three weeks ago -- she told us that there had been two rockets already that morning, and that one of them had hit the house of a young couple and their 7-month old daughter. They didn't know if anyone had been hurt.
Small-town girl in Kassam City
I come from Maine, which is considered rather unusual among most American olim. I suppose it is even more unusual that I've chosen to live part-time in Sderot this year.
I arrived in Sderot four months ago to begin an internship in the Sderot Media Center. As a native English speaker, I translate, edit, write articles, and work as an international coordinator and correspondent.
The most abnormal part of this job is living with the daily red alerts and the Kassam rocket attacks. I already have a foray of images etched into my mind of the people in Sderot and their struggles to live through this Kassam rocket reality: an elderly woman trembling violently, a baby crying, a group of children huddling together for safety, as the police search for the Kassam rocket in the dark of night--these are moments that make you wonder how people learn to live with fear.
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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