By Judy Lash Balint
SDEROT, Israel —in the early 1990s I spent quite a bit of time in Sderot,
one of Israel’s southern development towns that sits just at the
northeastern tip of the Gaza Strip. At that time, I was coordinator of
the Operation Exodus campaign of the Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle and
Sderot was our twin community.
The idea was that a portion of the money raised in Seattle for Soviet
emigration would be channeled directly to Sderot to help them absorb an
additional 11,000 immigrants. The entire population of Sderot back then was
only 12,000, so the town was expected to almost double its size over a period
of just a few years.
I remember sitting in the sweltering conference room of the bare-bones
municipality building in 1990, as city officials explained where the new
neighborhood of pre-fab houses would be built, not far from the burgeoning
industrial zone. There was optimism in the air, despite the obvious challenges
of integrating such large numbers of people who had little in common with the
largely North African Sderot old-timers. The newcomers would revitalize the
town and stimulate the economy, we were told, and Sderot would become an
attractive regional center. A safe community, secure in its uncontroversial
status inside the Green Line.
These memories came flooding back yesterday as I sat in that same conference
room listening to Eli Moyal, the ashen-faced, exhausted and exasperated Likud
mayor of Sderot.
Not much has changed in the modest building—the same tired-looking,
once-white stucco covers the walls, and the giant size map of the city in the
conference room hasn’t been updated. But the most striking difference
in that conference room is the 13 pictures of Sderot residents killed in
terror and Kassam attacks. Several of them are children, including Ayala
Abucassis, 17, who was killed by a Kassam rocket last year on a Sderot street.
A couple of the terror victims are Russian-speaking immigrants.
Since the Israeli withdrawal from Gush Katif last summer, Sderot has become
the new address for a barrage of Kassam rockets fired from the area of the
now-destroyed Jewish communities of Dugit, Alei Sinai and Nisanit. According
to IDF statistics, more than 600 Kassams have been launched against Israel
from the Gaza Strip since last September. Several have targeted the
Ashkelon industrial area, but it’s Sderot, barely 3 miles away from Beit
Hanoun, that has borne the brunt of the onslaught.
Last weekend alone, seventy of the crude arrowhead missiles were launched
toward Israel. Four Israelis were wounded and a few buildings were damaged.
Every time there’s an incoming Kassam, a warning siren sounds. It’s called
‘Red Dawn’ and provides all of 15 seconds for people to dive next to a
wall or under the bed. To say that the citizens of Sderot are on edge would be
a severe understatement.
A group of residents is currently conducting a hunger strike in a small Sderot
park. Their demand is simple—get the IDF to strike Beit Hanoun so they
can live in peace and quiet. The park where they’ve set up their protest
tent is a few yards away from the home of Defense Minister Amir Peretz, leader
of Israel’s Labor party. Peretz hasn’t been home much lately—he’s too
busy issuing empty threats from Jerusalem. On Wednesday, Peretz clearly warned
Hamas to stop launching rockets at southern Israel or “face the wrath of the
IDF.” Today, one day later, when a Kassam collapses an industrial building
in Sderot injuring one worker, Peretz tells the Knesset plenum his preference
would be for both sides to work out their differences within the context of an
agreement.
Anger at such government policy is palpable all over Sderot. Over at the AMIT
High School, a few short yards away from the municipality and Sderot’s
central square, students are squeezed into the ground-floor classrooms since
May 21 when a Kassam burst through the red-tile roof shattering the ceiling of
the 11th grade classroom. The teenage boys were finishing morning
prayers in the school’s synagogue when the missile hit.
“They’re shocked, afraid. Everyone is frustrated at the
government,” Rabbi Amit Orenbuch, the soft-spoken school’s principal says.
“The students feel that nothing is as it should be,” he goes on. Orenbuch,
himself a seven-year resident of Sderot says this is the worst period he
remembers in the town.
A few of the teenagers come out to talk to reporters. In the typical
manner of teenage boys, they put on a facade of bravado—tense smiles cover
their fears as they proclaim how they’re OK and have no difficulties dealing
with the situation.
Mayor Moyal has a more sober assessment of the effect of the Kassams on
Sderot’s children. “More than 50 percent of kids here are suffering from
Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome,” he asserts. “It manifests in all
kinds of ways—they’re sleeping in their parent’s beds, can’t
concentrate on their studies, taking pills,” he adds.
Moyal pledges that by the end of the month no kids will be left in Sderot.
All 5,000 children will be sent to summer camps in other parts of the country
to protect them from additional trauma.
Moyal isn’t placated by government promises to reinforce schools with Kassam-proof
roofs. “I don’t believe in protection—what we need is to prevent
the terrorists launching missiles at us. Israel isn’t really fighting
terror, our government is trying to negotiate with terrorists.”
The Likud mayor doesn’t mince words in conveying his disgust at his
Palestinian neighbors. “There’s no reason the Palestinians keep on
shitting on us after we took all our troops out of Gaza. It’s just blatant
hatred, that’s why they’re shooting at us. There are no Palestinian
demands on this land. I’m calling on the citizens of Sderot not to go
anywhere—we’ll stay here forever. Not because we’re strong, but
because we’re right. We won’t give them the satisfaction of giving
into terror.”
At his news conferences with world leaders this week, Prime Minister Ehud
Olmert, Sderot was barely mentioned. Mr. Olmert shouldn’t expect a
quiet homecoming
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Judy Lash Balint is an award-winning Jerusalem-based writer and author of
Jerusalem Diaries: In Tense Times. (Gefen) www.jerusalemdiaries.com
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