Gush Katif Viewpoint 147

GUSH KATIF VIEWPOINT 147
January 3, 2009

DECORATING FOR WAR by Rachel Saperstein, Neve Dekalim/Nitzan

We’ve decided to redecorate.

Wars force you to look at your home and rearrange those awkwardly placed pieces that might cause a second in delay in going to our shelter. A large black candelabra that juts out to the passageway to the front door has been moved to a small table on the other side of the room. Our winter jackets, generally kept in a closet , are hanging close to the front door, ready for use as we make our way in the bitter cold to the sewer pipe cum shelter.

A Sabbath floral arrangement brightens the foyer, a bit of cheer in a dismal setting.

The siren wails. We hear the explosion in the distance.

The three cylindrical pipes are laid out at the end of the cul-de-sac. Great slabs of concrete are close to the two entrances giving added protection from shrapnel. The pipes will not withstand a direct hit, but will protect us from shrapnel. The Home Front Command repeats the message over and over on radio and tv – shelter will save your life. My misgivings of the concrete sewer pipes have turned to respect. For a shelterless communty, this was an innovative quick solution to a wartime dilemma. Other communities are asking to have pipes put in as well.

The pipes are large enough to stand in. Children are using them as play areas. In time, artistic graffiti will decorate the cylinders.

They will not be removed after the war but will remain either as a reminder of the Gaza War or to be used over and over again as future rockets rain down on us.

Friday night we slept in heavy sweat socks, slippers ready at the bedside. Lights are kept on.

Friends called and asked us to join them for Shabbat. We feel we cannot leave. Others wanted to join us. We cannot allow them to expose themselves to the danger. Tension increases. Women talk of head and chest pains. We discuss relaxation techniques.

Saturday night. The sirens wailed several times today. They wailed after starting lunch. We walked to the shelter and met our neighbors, some carrying babies and smaller children. “Shabbat Shalom” we called to one another. Some of the men refused to go. The women are furious at their risk-taking.

On my power walk I stopped to admire the cylinders near our Chabad House. The word “Moshiach” was printed on the pipe. But most prominent were the words ‘men’ and ‘women’ printed on either entrance. Clearly there will be no mixing of the sexes in this sewer pipe.

The holy Sabbath has ended, and we wish you a good week. And may our troops, now reported to be entering Gaza, stay safe.

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Our people cannot get to their places of work, and their needs will grow. Help us to help our people in the line of fire in this war zone.

Please make your checks payable to Central Fund for Israel, earmarked for OPERATION DIGNITY. Send them to

Central Fund for Israel, 980 Sixth Avenue, New York, NY 10018, USA

or Central Fund for Israel, 13 Hagoel Street, Efrat 90435, Israel

Shekel checks should be sent to

Operation Dignity, POB 445, Nitzan 79287, Israel