Heading south

A show of solidarity: Shopping for Shabbat in Sderot

Convoy of hundreds of cars will travel to Sderot Friday. The goal: To shop for Shabbat in the Southern town and help local businesses

Tamar Dressler|Published: 07.05.07 , 19:48

Seven years of Qassam rocket attacks on Sderot and the area have affected every aspect of the residents' life there. Many have had to close up businesses. For others survival is a daily struggle. An initiative put together over the last few weeks will try to provide an answer to the beleaguered residents of the town. A solidarity convoy from all over the country carrying hundreds of potential shoppers will arrive on Friday morning.

“This will be a convoy of hundreds, maybe even thousands of vehicles from 17 points across the country,” said Ilan Cohen, a resident of Modi'in and one of the organizers of the convoy. “The idea is to shop for Shabbat in Sderot and in that way show our solidarity with the businesses in the town.”

This is not the first time that Cohen, the principal of a school for chess instruction in Modi'in, has organized convoys of solidarity to Sderot. About five weeks ago he got some 40 cars from Modi'in to drive to the town but now he’s trying to offer help on a larger scale.

“I felt that I had to do something,” he said. “It can’t be that Qassam rockets have fallen on Sderot for seven years and there is no solution. The common denominator that unites many Israelis today is how fed up we are with the defective way the authorities run things and I felt that something had to be done.”

Danny Dahan head of the Sderot Business Forum and the owner of the local supermarket, welcomed the initiative and promised a warm reception to the visitors.

“Businesses in Sderot are on the verge of collapsing,” he said. “Seven years of Qassam rockets and an unclear security situation have strangled the business community here which was never strong to begin with. The compensation expected to be approved by the Knesset Finance Committee to business owners is important but for many of us it is too little too late.”

Despite the encouragement he draws from the initiative the forecast for the future is cloudy. “I am expecting another exodus of people from the town among those can afford it. I have no doubt that the families who can leave, will. Those remaining will be the weakest populations who stay because they don’t have the resources to go. The government must help Sderot residents to live in dignity.”

Dahan knows the situation well because of his position in the community. He said that he never stopped trying to prevent the collapse of more businesses despite the hardships he encountered on a daily basis.

"Promises of future benefits don’t help. We need breathing space now," he said.

The local ‘parliament’ meets regularly at Sasson Yosef’s shop in the neglected commercial center on the other side of the road. They discuss the expected financial incentives and wonder if they will turn Sderot into a main shopping center for the residents of the area.

Sasson, a resident of Sderot and father of five believes that if the government would cut the VAT like it did in Eilat, people would no doubt come from as far away as Ashkelon and Ashdod to do their shopping.

The Treasury’s decision to provide business owners with the equivalent of 16 days compensation doesn’t impress him. “The compensation is based on last year at the same time,” he said. “Qassams fell then too and it had a huge impact on local business. Therefore the compensation won’t be particularly helpful to most of us. We need breathing space and immediately. Oxygen now in order to help us keep our businesses open.”

Other members of the parliament were hard pressed to find anything optimistic to say. “Even the promised cut in municipal taxes to residents and business owners don’t excite us,” they said.

“We’ve already had a 50 percent cut in the rates but then they decided to cancel it because we are not considered a confrontation line community. Then they decided to restore the discount but only to 25 percent and now they are reinstating the 50 percent cut. Looks like they are going to continue to play with us.”

The convoy is expected to leave from different points around the country. Cars carrying the flag of their city will leave Raanana at 8 am from the front of the Mashbir Department store. Mayor Nachum Ofri will be among those in the convoy. Similar groups will be leaving from Herzliya, Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, Rishon Letzion, Givatayim, Rechovot, Shoham Beersheva, Ashdod and Gadera. They will all meet and gather into one long convoy destination - Sderot.

In the meantime, Dahan has spoken with town business owners about the convoy. “Everyone knows and is waiting with coffee and pastry to welcome them,” he promised, “and a modest gift to shoppers.”