Sderot

Since I am working for a Palestinian Christian organization, most people I encounter are within this community. I, therefore, try to take advantage of every opportunity I can to encounter different views. Once such day, was last Friday. I was able to go along with a tour to Sderot. Sderot is the town that receives most media coverage for being in range of the Qassam rockets being fired by militant groups from Gaza. At least 7 people have died due to the rocket attacks. Others have died in surrounding villages. Sderot, however, is the largest city near Gaza, at roughly 3 km, so it gets the most media coverage.

It was a day of a wide range of experiences. We first met with an organization called "Other Voice". The goal of this organization is to facilitate dialogue and promote non-violence in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The founder of Other Voice, Eric, told us about the weekly electronic conference calls held between community members of Sderot, with friends in Gaza. It is impossible for them to see each other, because of the wall around Gaza and permits granted to those living usually only for extreme medical emergencies. The conference calls, however, create dialogue between the two communities and succeed in "humanizing" the other side for both conflicts. One of the biggest successes of war is the dehumanizing of the enemy, so you cease to think of them as human beings. Other Voice wants to stress the common humanity on both sides. Eric, as well as Nomika, another facilitating member of Other Voice, talked about their opposition to Israel's offensive on Gaza. Nomika expressed the stress and trauma of living in a city under rocket attack, where every building has a safe room where you must flee if the siren goes off. She, however, acknowledged the immense suffering of Gazans during the offensive and how violence on both sides was not the answer. I really like this organization. They seemed to have a very balanced perspective.

Other Voice has become famous since the war on Gaza, because of their efforts to raise another voice in an Israeli society, which was largely supportive of the war. Read Nomika Zion's article, which was circulated around the world: War Diary from Sderot. Also check out their website.

Next we met with a group of students at Sapira college in Sderot. This is the largest college (not university) in Israel. It has a well-known media program. The students with whom we met were the founders of a recycling center based at their college. Their main goal was to help Israeli society become responsible with their garbage. In the political realm, they sought to create ties between themselves and the bedouin community of the Western Negev. The bedouin communities in the Western Negev make up some of the Arab population within Israel proper. It is neat that these students would want to bridge the gap between themselves and a community that is largely overlooked by Israel and has many cultural differences. This group of students also provided humanitarian aid from their recycling center to victims of the war on Gaza and also people in Sderot during the war.

The third and final person with whom we met, was Noam Bedein, the creator of Sderot Media Center. Noam was on the complete opposite side of the spectrum and in full support of the war. With the creation of his media center, he hoped to publicize the psychological trauma of those living in Sderot under the threat of Qassam rockets. His description of the fear people must have when they have to deal with the threat of rockets was very legitimate. His approach, however, was so one-sided that it was hard for a group of 20, all working in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, to appreciate. Although we tried to give him the benefit of the doubt, because his message was so one-sided, it lost credibility with us very fast. While describing the pain of the people in Sderot, he would not acknowledge at all that Palestinians had gone through any sort of pain. He would only call people in Gaza terrorists, instead of acknowledging the fact that both terrorists and civilians lived on the other side. He even went so far as saying that the Israeli government needed to fix the problem in Sderot, and their recent offensive in Gaza, "did not go far enough" in fixing the problem. He also would not directly address any of our questions which challenged his argument. He simply repeated the same argument over and over.

Anyone who supports violence as a means to peace, I cannot agree with. According to the Other Voice organization we had met earlier, Noam's views sadly reflect about 90% of the people's views in Sderot and a majority within Israel proper as well.

(Picture 1 - Nomika Zion of Other Voice. Picture 2 - Noam Bedein showed us a bomb shelter at a playground designed as a worm.)