VIDEO - Students from elementary schools across the country wrap up the school year soon, but for Sderot students summer break is already here, and it is no reason to party. The non-stop Qassam attacks on the town and the public’s struggle against them has forced schools to close early, as parents are unwilling to risk sending their children to the unprotected buildings that have already been the site of a number of rocket strikes.
Instead of school Monday, Sderot children were treated to a field trip intended get their minds off the routine of rocket drills, at least for a little while.
Twelve buses packed with 550 4th-6th graders arrived at the National Yarkon Park and the Fortress of Antipatrus by Rosh Haayin as part of an initiative by the Nature and Parks Authority. Parents stayed behind in the protest tents, anticipating an afternoon visit from President Moshe Katsav.
After the meeting, Sderot promised to go through with its plan to escalate protest and shut down the town, while groups of residents headed to Tel Aviv and Jerusalem to hold demonstrations against what they view as the State’s passivity in the face of rocket attacks. Sderot municipality officials even considered cutting of the town’s electricity in the evening, but it has not yet been decided whether to go through with such a drastic move.
Sderot kids in park (Photo: Ofer Amram)
Children’s trauma
Students that reached the park Monday tried to take advantage of every moment to escape routine a bit, but conversations with them consistently led to the same topic –the moments between when the Red Dawn siren sounds and the rocket hits, and their feelings afterwards.
Nir Ohana, a student from Sderot, says that just yesterday he saw a Qassam soar over his house and hit next to the local library. “The Qassam didn’t fall 15 seconds after the Red Dawn siren like it usually does, but a whole minute after. So my mother and I thought it was a false alarm. We went to the window and saw a Qassam going right by our house.
“The force of the hit made my baby sister jump inside her crib, my mother cried but I wasn’t fazed. I’m not afraid of something happening to me, I’m afraid of what might happen to my family. The Red Dawn siren is scarier than the Qassams themselves. Sometimes at night I can’t sleep when the Qassams fall and I have to wake up my dad,” Ohana said.
Another student, Slavik Landman, described the intolerable atmosphere they are forced to live in lately.
“When people here the Red Dawn they panic. Our neighbors upstairs hear the siren and start running around hysterically, but I’m not afraid anymore. Once, before they installed the sirens, I was outside and I hear a whistle a Qassam fell next to me and killed a kid. I saw it and I ran away but afterwards I couldn’t sleep at night. My parents are thinking of moving to the United States because we have family there,” Landman said.
While the children were enjoying a myriad activities in the park, including shooting bows and arrows, drum circles and performances, Kotel Rabbi Shmuel Rabinowitz was visiting Sderot to show support for local residents in the protest tent and to collect notes from them which he promised to put in the Western Wall. The most popular request was “to live in security.”
‘This is not a life’
Meanwhile more children said their families were considering moving away from the rocket-battered town. “My parents are already looking for apartments outside of Sderot and Ashkelon because of the Qassams,” Danny Iskov said. “I don’t want to leave my friends though.”
Kids enjoy drum circle (Photo: Ofer Amram)
Natali Hamiel, a 6th grade teacher at the Yitzhak Rabin school in town, admits that thoughts of leaving are nothing new. “I was born in Sderot and for five-and-a-half years I lived in Netiv Haasarah until I moved to Ashdod. My husband wasn’t willing to stay anymore, because this is no way to live. Both my family and my husband’s family live in Sderot and don’t want to leave. It’s not so simple. The situation is not easy on us the parents and certainly not on the kids,” Hamiel explained.
Another student, Karine Pinhasov, is also planning to leave with her family. “This summer my parents are planning to move to Ashkelon. In two weeks we’re starting to look for apartments. I want to leave because I’m scared here. I’m scared of the Qassams and wake up in the night and go to my mom’s bed to sleep. My dog is scared too, he starts to cry and wants to be let in the house. Once he even tore through the screen and forced his way in,” she says.
Although few, there are some students that say they’ve gotten used to the routine of rocket attacks and learned not to be scared when the alarm sounds.
“I don’t even hear the Qassams during the night, I don’t wake up, but my brothers are scared,” Danny Yankelov said. “Since we live on the first floor my parents don’t even wake me when the Red Dawn goes off, because there’s nothing to worry about. Now there’s no school because of the Qassams, but I’d rather go to school than just sit at home,” he says.