Sderot Rally For Hope

Last Thursday, I got up very early, around 8am, to attend a rally in Sderot along with Rochelle and her mom. We first met up at the Be'ersheva Central Bus Station, from where we took the metropolin bus number 351 to Sderot. There, we grabbed some shwarma at the Sderot Shook, before we made our way to the Sderot Media Center, who was organizing the rally. At the Sderot Media Center on Herzl Street, we helped to make signs and to carry Israeli flags, until we were bused over to the Kibbutz Nir Am Gas Station, from where we met up with students from Israel, Australia, South Africa, United States, Canada, and a variety of other countries, along with other international supporters, members of the media, some IDF soldiers, Sderot Media Center staff, members of the Sderot Municipality, people from the Israel Ministry of Public Diplomacy & the Diaspora, and even Zambian Presidential Candidate Dr. Saviour Chisimba. Together, we marched from the Kibbutz Nir Am Gas Station to Givat Yanchik, near the Gaza border. Along the way, people shouted "Israel is a peaceful country," "stop the terror and hatred," "stop the rocket attacks," "save Israeli children," and similar slogans. I carried a sign stating "stop targets on civillians, save Israeli children." Others carried signs stating "students against extremism," "stop Hamas terrorism against all our children," "free Gilad Shalit," "save Israeli children," "Sderot wants peace," and the like. Once we reached our destination at Givat Yanchik, we listened to a few words from Yuli Edelstein, who is the Israel Minister of Public Diplomacy and Diaspora Affairs. Then, we listened to a speech from Zambian Presidential Candidate Dr. Saviour Chishimba and Sderot Mayor David Buskila, before we sent off balloon messages from the children of Sderot to the children of Gaza.

After that, we were bused to the Sderot Cinamatique, which has a photo exhibit on all of the rocket dammage done by the qassams on the city of Sderot. There, we heard speeches from Noam Bedein of the Sderot Media Center, Chaya Singer of the World Union of Jewish Students, Yuli Edelstein of the Israel Ministry of Public Diplomacy and Diaspora Affairs, Zambian Presidential Candidate Dr. Saviour Chisimba, Sderot Mayor David Buskila, and from Moshe Amar, a Sderot resident whose home was destroyed by a Hamas rocket attack. Moshe Amar then proceeded to sing John Lenon's "Imagine" for us.

In conclusion, we were all taken to the Sderot Police Station, where we all saw a display of all of the rockets that have been fired on Sderot for the last eight years. They were all labeled whether they came from Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, or the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade. They were also labeled whether they were fired from a civillian area in Gaza or not, where they landed in Israel, and when they fell in Israel. Noam spoke to us during this time. He explained to us that 97 percent of rocket attacks fired from Gaza to Sderot are fired from within civillian areas and that Hamas especially likes to fire rockets at Sderot in the morning just as children are leaving to go to school, and in the afternoon when parents are going to pick up children for school. He also said that many of the rockets that land in Sderot end up falling somewhere near a kindergarden. Noam also told us a story of how a rocket alarm once went off when a woman was driving her car in Sderot with two small children in the back, and how she had only fifteen seconds to chose which child to take with her to shelter, since she did not have enough time to take both children to safety. This is worse than the situation in Be'ersheva during the Gaza War, where we had one minute to take shelter from rockets. Sderot is the only city in Israel that has bomb shelters at every bus station and at every playground in the city. And this reality of living under constant rocket fire has had a terrible negative psychological effect on the children who live in Sderot. Between 70 to 90 percent of the children who live in Sderot suffer from post traumatic stress disorder. This point is illustrated when a kindergarden teacher once asked her students in Sderot, who are around age five, why a snail has a shell. While the average five year old in the US would say because it is cute or something like that, the average child in Sderot says it is to protect the snail from the rockets.

I am really proud of my participation in this wonderful rally sponsored by the Sderot Media Center, The Israel Ministry of Public Diplomacy & the Diaspora, World Union of Jewish Students (WUJS), World Jewish Congress (WJC), Im Tirtzu and the Sderot Municipality. I am also really excited that my picture was shown in the Eretz Sheva video of the rally:

http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/135296

We also received coverage from CNN, the Washington Post, Christian Science Monitor, the New York Times, ABC News, US National Public Radio, AP, Reuters, Jerusalem Post, YNET, Israel Channel 1, and Zambian Watchdog. Links can be found below:

1) CNN: http://edition.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/meast/12/31/gaza.march/ Protestors Rally to End Economic Blockade of Gaza*Towards end of article
2) The Washington Post: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/12/31/AR2009123101935.html
3) Christian Science Monitor: http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Middle-East/2009/1231/In-Israel-embattled-Sderot-comes-back-to-life-after-rocket-barrages-of-Gaza-war
4) New York Times: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/01/world/middleeast/01gaza.html *Towards end of article
5) ABC News: http://abcnews.go.com/meta/search/imageDetail?format=plain&source=http%3A%2F%2Fabcnews.go.com%2Fimages%2FInternational%2Fa26d64e2-1c64-4d4c-9b35-1bcd5fa4275cUS National Public Radio (NPR): http://topics.npr.org/article/0bzU5tZdTpd9w
6) AP Photos of Rally: http://apimages.ap.org/Search.aspx?st=det&sort=date&id=MIDEAST%20ISRAEL%20PALESTINIANS&showact=events&prds=10135&intv=3d&sh=10&kwstyle=and&adte=1262277611&pagez=20&cfasstyle=AND&7) 7) Reuters Photos: http://www.daylife.com/photo/01Er9KQ2hz8I3
8) Jerusalem Post Video: http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1194419829128&pagename=JPost%2FPage%2FVideoPlayer&videoId=12613645679469) Jerusalem Post articles:
1) Hundreds Protest Israel's Gaza Policies as Sderot Rally Releases Peace Balloons: http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1261364566077&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
2) Sderot children send New Year's Message to Gaza: http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1261364566089&pagename=JPArticle%2FShowFull
10) Israel National News: http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/135296
11) YNet News: http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3828052,00.html
12) Israel Channel 1 (Hebrew): http://www.news1.co.il/PageLoad.aspx?adid=5324&pageUrl=Archive/0020-D-225215-00.html?tag=21-16-31
13) YNet News (Hebrew): http://www.ynet.co.il/articles/0,7340,L-3828008,00.html
14) Zambian Watchdog: http://www.zambianwatchdog.com/2010/01/02/chishimba-kambwili-joins-demos-in-isreal-condemns-rb/

If you search on google, "Hundreds in Sderot, Israel Protest Hamas Gaza Terror Rockets, Seek Peace for children," you will see over 24,000 hits. That is because news agencies, blogs, sites picked up the Israel News Agency Press release from PRweb.com. I am so excited that our rally received such good coverage and am looking forward to getting involved in the future with supporting the people of Sderot against Hamas terrorism.