Sderot: The Next Round

SDEROT: TENSING UP FOR THE NEXT ROUND

By Rachel Saperstein, Neve Dekalim/Nitzan. e-mail:
ruchimo@netvision.net.il

An Israeli TV crew joined us on our trip to Sderot today. They are in
the process of shooting a short documentary on Gush Katif refugees in
which we appear.

"The bombing of Sderot is a direct consequence of our expulsion from
Gush Katif. I feel I should be here – to lend a hand, to write, to
bring the Sderot tragedy to the world. This is the Arab response to
being given Gush Katif land, buildings, farms and businesses," I say.

We stopped at the Sderot police station. Trays of Kassam rockets are
displayed. A group of visiting tourists gape. Each rocket has its own
designer label pointing to its factory of origin.

"The Israeli government threw out Jewish grandparents from Gush Katif
so that rockets can kill Jewish children," I cry out in pain.

Today I learn about the manufacturing of these rockets. The long
cylinders are the pipes of Gush Katif hothouses, the explosives are
made of Israeli chemical fertilizer, the factories are powered by
electricity from Israeli power plants. And under the noses of the
Israeli army the shooters send their vicious weapons to kill, to maim,
to destroy the Jewish people.

The TV crew has had enough of Sderot. They flee.

I continue on towards the synagogue that had taken a direct hit. The
study hall was still in shambles. Firemen give instructions to the
caretaker on how to proceed with repairs. The elderly men who once
came to the study hall to learn Torah are terrified of sitting in an
unprotected room. The cost of rebuilding the roof is far beyond the
means of the congregants. The caretaker begs us for help. Noam Bedein
of SderotMedia promises to put their request on his website.

We meet with Chana and Tsefania in their simply furnished apartment.
Chana is active in the Sderot Parent-Teacher Association. Brought up
on a kibbutz of Holocaust survivors, she thought that having a number
tattooed on your arm was natural. "I feel I've returned to the Shoah,"
she says. "I live with the tension that at any moment my family and
friends could be destroyed. I live in fear every moment of the day."

Tsefania, of Yemenite descent, was an army career officer. "I was for
the disengagement," he tells me. "Now I see how wrong I was. This is
the result. It's been quiet for the past three days, but I know the
bombings aren't over. I'm tensed up waiting for the next round and it
will be worse because I've let my guard down."

Noam puts on a disc of film he has taken in a Sderot kindergarten
during a Kassam rocket attack. We hear the `Red Alert' signal. The
teacher cries "Hurry, hurry children." Dozens of four-year-olds rush
to the shelter, sit on the floor, and count back from 10 to 1, and
then sing as hard as they can. "They sing at the top of their lungs so
they won't hear the boom of the rocket exploding."

Once again Jewish children are running for their lives and singing so
they won't hear the sound of the deadly rockets – built with Israel's
assistance – that can annihilate them in seconds.

Please pray for our people.

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OPERATION DIGNITY will be aiding projects in Sderot as well as
continuing to help our people in Gush Katif refugee camps.

Contributions, earmarked for OPERATION DIGNITY, should be sent to

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

or

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