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)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.
Netivot: The next Sderot?
This past Saturday, May 24, two red alert sirens activated throughout the western Negev city of Netivot. Two grad Katyusha rockets, fired at the city's population of 30,000, fell in open fields.
Founded in 1956 as development town, Netivot is home to a large number of Sephardi Jews from Morocco and was established three years after the formation of Sderot. Although Netivot has not experienced rocket fire as intensely as Sderot, Hamass more frequent use of grad Katyushas is making Netivot a target for Palestinian rocket fire.
Netivot is about 11 kilometers away from Gaza, slightly further away from the Gazan border than Ashkelon. The first grad Katyusha struck Netivot back in October 2007, landing several hundred meters away from a residential area in Netivot.
Craters, glass and shrapnel
Throughout Saturday afternoon, I heard a number of alarms followed by a number of loud explosions as several rockets hit Sderot. I did not know where they had hit and I decided to go looking for them when the sun went down and the Sabbath ended.
A constant problem here is that we hear the loud KABOOM! when the rocket lands, but we often have no way of knowing exactly where the explosion occurred - unless, of course, the rocket went through the roof of someone's house. We too are dependent on the news media to learn exactly what has happened, but the TV and radio do not mention the address where the rocket fell, because most of their audience does not live in Sderot.
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.
From Tel Aviv to Sderot
On Friday February 15, Sderot Media Center conducted a tour for representatives from five foreign embassies; Argentina, Romania, Denmark, Finland, and South Africa.
I met the group of embassy representatives in Tel Aviv and accompanied them on the 50 minute drive to Sderot. It is always amazing to see just how short of a drive it is from central Israel to the western Negev. As the diplomats pointed out, Sderot is not as geographically isolated from the rest of Israel as we tend to think.
There were no red alerts on rocket attacks that Friday while the delegation was visiting but the group was somewhat able to grasp what life is like under rocket fire by visiting the Kassam gallery, a buffered school, and a home devastated by the attack.
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.
Valley terrorists begin rocket barrage of Beverly Hills
The city of Los Angeles just unilaterally withdrew from the Valley. This oasis of jappiness, private schools and mini-malls finally gets the independence it's wanted for generations
However, after Los Angeles left the valley, some citizens of this new autonomous entity decided it wasn't enough. They wanted more. Bel Air, Mulholland, Westwood, even my home town of Beverly Hills!
So what do these maniacs do?
They start digging up their water pipes (which the great city of Los Angeles gave them) and make rockets out of them to wreck havoc on the innocent citizens of the City.
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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