Tel-Aviv and Sderot

Last Wednesday, I went up to Tel-Aviv a) because I wanted to see the rest of my Career Israel friends at Beit Leni, aka the Frat House, and b) because we had our MDA closing ceremony where we got our certificates and our official training period is over.  When I got to Beit Leni, my friend Michael asked me to do a night shift with him and our friend Natalie that night.  There was no way I was saying no to that because I knew the 3 of us would have a BLAST working together.  Long story short, we got split up, 2 and 1, based on need.  It was so nice being back there with everyone.  I loved that even though I don't have a bed there anymore, I was able to bed hop and not sleep on the floor once!

On Sunday, we had our Sderot and Disengagement Seminar.  Our entire program went to Sderot to see, and hear, about what it's like living in a place where bomb shelters and "red alert" sirens are the norm.  The day as a whole was very surreal and eye-opening.  One of the first things we did, was go to a hill where less than a half mile from where we were standing was the boarder fence with the Gaza strip but also out in the horizon we were able to see Gaza city.  My first thought, and what I heard my friends saying also, was that Gaza looked like a much more developed and "urban" city than I had thought.  I knew it wasn't sand dunes and huts made of straw and mud, but I wasn't expecting what I saw.  If not told what we were looking at, or knowing where we were, it easily looked like it could have been Rishon LeTziyon or another Israeli suburb.

The city of Sderot is unreal.  There are bomb shelters everywhere.  Every house or apartment has a bomb shelter.  EVERY bus stop double as a bomb shelter.  We drove by a school, and there were multiple bomb shelters scattered across the school yard.  We went to a playground, where the bomb shelters were shaped and painted like play equipment.  This is the way of life for the residents of Sderot. In Los Angeles, growing up we had earthquake drills.  At college in Murfressboro, we had tornado drills.  Those are normal.  Those are NATURAL disasters.  Practicing a drill that potentially means you only have 15 seconds to run for your life is not natural.  This may be "normal" for the residents of Sderot, but these kids will, and do, suffer from PTSD.  The guy who spoke to us said that a few months ago he was at the airport in the States and someone got on the loud speaker.  When he heard that noise those microphones make when you turn them on made him jump and get in "15 second to run for your life mode."

When we first got to where we were going to hear our first speaker, we were told that Chabad House center we were in was also a shelter.  After lunch we went to the college to hear another woman speak.  Before she started, she told us where to go incase there was a siren.  This was normal for them.  We were shown two different videos about what it's like to live in Sderot and they happened to capture live sirens.  One of them is on YouTube and I'll post the link at the end of this post and I'm not sure about the other so I'll briefly describe it to you.  The news guy is interviewing a kindergarten teacher and he hears the siren.  He says to her "is this real" and she says "yes."  All you see, are all these little kids running for their lives.  Once inside their shelter, they countdown from 15 and at the end they all sing.  They sing because the noise will block out the sound of any possible explosions.  You can see these kids are scared, some are even crying.

Nobody should have to live that way.  Nobody.

The last speaker was an older lady who used to live in Gush Katif.  Gush Katif was a settlement in Gaza.  She had lived there for 30 years.  During the disengagement in the summer of 2005, the Israeli government forced her, and the rest of the community, out of their homes.  This woman had the potential to be a really good speaker, but not only was she all over the place with her tangents, but it was the end of the day and we were all tired, so I didn't pay a ton of attention to what she said.  I do remember her sharing her story about the day they got forced out.  She did not want to leave, so she stayed until the last moment before the soldier would have to take her out.  She wanted to see some type of guilt and sadness from the soldiers about what they were being forced to do, but nothing.  At one point during the evacuation, she was able to get all the soldiers to cry except for the one leading the charge at her house.  After they left, her husband realized he left his tallis and teffilin behind.  When he got to the house, he saw the guy in charge sitting at the table crying.  These soldiers did not want to kick people out of their homes but they had no choice.  You do as your told in the army.  Politics aside, which I know can be hard, but nobody should be force out of their homes.

Here is a picture of one of the bomb shelters at the playground we went to.

And here is the link to the YouTube video.  It's called "15 Seconds in Sderot"