Protesters Wednesday
Photo: Dudi Vaaknin
Sderot residents protest Qassams
Hundreds of residents of the rocket-battered town demonstrate government's lack of action in front of Prime Minister's Office. 'If rockets fell on Tel Aviv, there would be a war,' one protester says
Some 250 Sderot residents protested the continued rocket attacks on the town at a demonstration outside the Prime Minister's Office in Jerusalem Wednesday.
Among the demonstrators were many children who did not got to school as part of a strike launched by the town's parents committee in protest of the lack of fortified classrooms.
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The protesters carried signs demanding Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's resignation and "treat Sderot as if it was Tel Aviv". One of the demonstrators told Ynet, "We are being abandoned, it is simply disgraceful. If one Qassam were to fall on Tel Aviv, they would start a war."
Another Sderot resident angrily added, "Olmert should resign if he cannot bring quiet to the town. They sit in the air-conditioned fortified offices and our lives are endangered every day. Not one civilized country in the world would allow such a thing to happen on its territory."
Children protesting outside Prime Minister's Office (photo: Dudi Vaaknin)
During the protest, the demonstrators learned that the security cabinet had decided not to expand the scope of the IDF's operations in Gaza despite the ongoing bombardment.
The news angered the crowd further and one protester sarcastically said, "The government is not carrying out an operation in Gaza because it has more important things on the agenda, it is dealing with the hair on the head of the boy who will be on the logo for the State's 60th birthday celebrations. Will he have long hair? Will he have short hair?
"This is apparently more important than Sderot. When they finish making decisions about such crucial matters, maybe they will have time to make a decision about us as well."
'Sderot is on fire and nobody cares'
Yossi Tamsit, a member of a family whose home has been hit several times by fallen rockets, said during the demonstration, "The decision not to launch an operation in Gaza is disgusting. Olmert and the entire government should be ashamed of themselves. We will keep suffering Qassams and they will keep sitting in air-conditioning."We seem to be third-rate citizens. I invite Olmert and his entire family to spend the weekend at my house so that maybe then he will see a bit of what we are going through."
Another resident said, "It seems that until a few children are killed, Mr Olmert and his gang won't wake up up there. We thought that Ehud Barak would bring a change, but he too falls in line with the government's weakness. Sderot is on fire and nobody cares."
Among the protesters was MK Shai Hermesh of Kadima, a resident of Kibbutz Kfar Aza, who explained that he wasn't protesting against Olmert personally. "I am not protesting. I am simply demanding the prime minister uphold his promise to build shelters in the residents' homes, and allow Sderot and Gaza vicinity residents a sense of security. This is a legitimate demand."
MK Zevulun Orlev (National Religious Party) was also present and called for a military operation in Gaza.
"I know that they are talking about the heavy price that we may pay there, but the price Sderot residents pay every day is no less heavy. The only reason the prime minister doesn't want to launch a military operation in Gaza is so as not to admit the failure of the disengagement."
