A Day in Sderot

By Debbie Minsky

Editor's Note: Debbie Minsky is an 18 year old British student currently on a year long program with The Federation of Zionist Youth (FZY). Below she records her experience after visiting Sderot, a city bordering Gaza.

     April 16th, one of the scariest days of my life. We took a group trip to a city a mile away from Gaza called Sderot. Over seven years, eight thousand rockets have been launched from the territories. These rockets are launched from kindergartens to civilian houses to purposely get every single inhabitant of Sderot out of the city! Hamas have declared that they will not stop until every resident of Sderot leaves. However, once all the residents from the city leave terrorist organisations can takeover the land and carry this plan on until Israel no longer exists.

Our day began by meeting Noam, the director of media in Sderot, who took us around the main police station where we were able to see the remain of about 400 rockets that had been launched and caused devastation throughout Sderot.

On the 16^th of April alone, ten rockets had hit Sderot even before we had arrived! After this we went to see a house that had been hit and destroyed by a rocket two months earlier. The members of the household were Moroccan and had been living in their house for 39 years, they now live in a government rented apartment. Unable to house their six children and twenty one grandchildren, with Pessach being celebrated the family are unable for the first time to hold a seder all together.

Our group then went to have lunch and we were told to stay together as a group. We ate in a restaurant that sold shwarma and falafel. This restaurant hardly gets any business--after all who would want to visit a city where you are in danger from morning to night for seven consecutive years.

Our group were enjoying our lunch and having a good time when are leader shouted, “chanchim, to the bomb shelter immediately!” At first I thought it was a joke, for our leaders to simulate everyday life for these people, and because I was unable to hear the siren to alert us! We had fifteen second to get from the restaurant to the shelter; I was stricken with panic and literally ran for my life!

Once everyone was safe in the shelter, we were all struck by emotion in different ways, people were crying but everyone was comforting each other. Even people who lived in Sderot were giving us advice and once the siren stopped, told us to drink water as we exited the shelter.

What none of us knew until afterwards was two things, firstly, that we had not heard the siren because the government do not give the city enough money for enough speakers, and secondly, if the rocket had hit exactly where we were, half of are group would have been killed, as we did not make it to the shelter within the time span necessary.

We were all shaken up and were asking to go back to Jerusalem, the city we visited directly before Sderot. However, our leader did not allow us to go back, so together we ventured on, showing our solidarity towards Israel and helping one another calm down, trying not to panic.

As we carried on we witnessed children from Sderot singing songs about happiness, these children lived their lives like this every day. The rockets being launched are normal occurrences for them and had only just become a reality for us.

Our world-view, full of peace and security, is most definitely not normal for the people of Sderot. We carried our journey to a building site for a new yeshiva, where donations have been made for new facilities. This means that Orthodox Jews from all over Israel will travel to Sderot for their religious learning and this itself is creating solidarity within the country.

After hearing the story of the yeshiva, we carried on to the main media centre of Sderot. However, everyone was still anxious inside; any noise such as a car alarm or something being moved caused us strong emotions from within.

The feelings one felt are hard to put in words and hard to imagine until you have witnessed the warning siren and the rockets being launched and falling. Arriving at the media centre, we were able to see many thought-provoking pictures, which brought the reality home again.

Suddenly, we heard our leader say the warning siren had erupted. Again, our group members were unable to hear the siren. However, in this particular situation, we did not have the required 15 seconds to get to a safe haven, but rather only five seconds at the most. Therefore, our leaders decided for us to stay in the building; we had to drop to the floor and stay as low as we could.

Once again the group became emotional, people were hysterical. Then we heard two bangs. Until one has witnessed the noise of a rocket exploding, you cannot imagine the fear that goes through ones mind when this occurs. Then, once it was clear, the group of eighteen to nineteen-year-olds split up and ran to the two nearest bomb shelters.

After, the realisation hit that the rockets fell extremely near to where we were, and how everyone was asking to leave, our leaders took it upon themselves to decide the danger was too great and that we were leaving to go back to Jerusalem, back home.

Many of us are still shaken up. I am writing this article the day of these events and cannot fully talk about what this day has been like. I feel the same feelings as when my grandfather passed away and I could not fully comprehend what had just occurred.

I believe this experience has changed my perspective on viewing Israel and how the media portrays the country. The people of Sderot need their voices to be heard. They go through panic everyday, of fear about being killed, and no one knows this.

Imagine bombs falling daily on your home town, and no one doing something about it. I am writing this article not to persuade you that Israel is dangerous and to feel complete sympathy. However, people need to be aware of the events that occur in Israel that the media does not choose to publicise.

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