Sderocket

We are on our mid-term orientation, or what is also known as Israel Exposure
Week. First stop Sderot. You may have heard of it. Two miles from Gaza,
target of a bombardment of homemade rockets over 9 years. We are visiting
Nomika Zion, one of the founders of The Other Voice. This is a group of
people from Sderot and a group of Gazans who came together to oppose what
was happening to both their communities. She wrote an article about the war
in Gaza, which achieved fame around the world – “Not in my Name and not for
my Security”.

She lives in a beautiful tree lined street which forms what is known as an
urban kibbutz, a kind of commune – a place where I can imagine I myself
would like to live. She came to Sderot in 1987, and describes a time when
people freely travelled between here and Gaza, shopped, went to the beach,
had friends. But since 2002 20% of the people of Sderot left. It is a mixed
community. There are many people, about 50%, from the Caucasian ex-Soviet
republics. There are Ethiopians. More recently the very orthodox Jews, who
would have gone to settlements in the occupied territories, now come here.
Sderot is what they like to call a development town. There are 200 such
families, all with large number of children, with an agenda. There are
Gazans in the town also; people who were accused of collaborating with
Israelis and cannot live in Gaza.

There are many social and economic problems, especially amongst some of the
more recent immigrants, and when you add to this the constant state of war
the town has been in, you have a very unstable community. There is much
stress, anxiety and uncertainty and therapists have been brought in to help
people cope. Immune systems are impacted. Health is generally bad. Sometimes
over a period of say 6 months people will have experienced up to 60 rockets
a day falling constantly. If a siren goes off you have around 10 seconds to
find shelter. If you are ferrying a group of neighbours’ children to school
you can’t possibly shelter them all in that time, and you have to choose who
you will protect. In this situation, the government spent billions of
dollars on providing security for the town. Schools have concrete second
roofs, houses have shelters. We pass an innocent looking children’s
playground. It has some brightly coloured caterpillars that children can
play inside. Later we find out these are reinforced concrete bomb shelters.

Nomika is shocked at the way people in her community have changed so
dramatically. She and her colleague Erik are pretty much lone voices against
the war. Even people who were left wing, refuseniks, now think that Gaza
gets what it deserves and believe that it is OK to destroy whole villages,
even children. “We have lost our ability to see Palestinians as human,” she
says, “and when you lose empathy, you lose part of your humanity.” So in
2008 she and others set up The Other Voice. They made phone contact with
people in Gaza and built relationships. She also thinks Israel should be
talking to Hamas. “They do bad things to their people, people in Gaza are
really suffering, but it was Hamas who imposed the ceasefire on all other
groups, we should be talking to them.” She says that what really worries her
is that peace has become the enemy. The media in Israel has become
militaristic and glorifies war. She speaks of how people used to come to the
hill outside the town to watch the bombardment of Gaza and cheer. Later we
go to this very hill and Gaza is spread out below us.

She had much positive feedback for her article from people who said they
felt alone with their views until they read it. But she has also been
vilified. “People in Israel are not ready to pay the price of social
isolation, like I have,” she says.

She is pessimistic about the future, as so many people I have met here in
Israel, and In Palestine. The leadership on both sides is weak and there is
so little will for peace. “Only the international community can force us
into finding a solution,” she says.

On our tour round the town we see, as well as the playground, some concrete
bus shelters, some of which have been lovingly graffitied. Even amongst all
this suffering there is humour. On one is painted the word “Sderocket”.

Erik has interesting things to say about Gaza. He says that their problem is
not so much getting goods in. The people have goods they cannot afford to
buy. Because their problem is getting goods out. They have no exports, no
economy, and the people suffer.