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News from the Region
2007 Olive Harvest Delegation

Report #2, Part 1 of 6
“We are resisting the occupation by insisting on life.”

By Martha Yager

Sderot, October 31 - Today has been pretty intense, so it is hard to distill it at this point.  This will be a collection of impressions from the day.

We traveled by bus from Jerusalem west toward the sea, then south towards Gaza and the Erez crossing into Gaza.  This elaborate terminal was designed to process lots of people, and in fact, many Gazans used to wait in long lines here twice a day to reach their jobs in Israel.  Today it was eerily quiet.  Israel gradually cut down on this stream of Palestinian labor and today the Gaza Strip is completely closed and sealed off from the rest of the world.  The workers who once passed through Erez now make up part of the 80% of Gaza’s population who are unemployed. 

The security staff at Erez (which looked like private guards, not IDF) didn’t want us there, insisting it wasn’t safe, so we only stayed for a few moments.  An Israeli dirigible (military drone) floated overhead filled with equipment to monitor activity in Gaza.  The crossing was not a friendly place.

Cobby Harush, head of IDF in Sderot, pointing across Israeli border toward Gaza where some 1000 Kassam rockets have been launched toward Sderot since 2000.

The next stop was Sderot, a large Israeli town (about 24,000) near the border with Gaza and the main recipient of the crude rockets launched daily from Gaza.  We had time for a walk, during which some of us talked with shop keepers, before lunch in a local coffee shop.  The coffee shop is a program for youth at risk, of which there are many.  Sderot has had a huge influx of immigrants, many of them arriving with great needs.  Add on seven years of rocket attacks, and kids are struggling.  The program serves mostly teens who have dropped out of school, getting them back into school, teaching them to run the coffee shop, being a home away from home. 

We then went to hear a presentation on the Gvanim Association for Education and Community Development.  The day before had begun badly for the woman speaking, with a rocket landing near her home at a nearby kibbutz.  While talking of their work, she frequently returned to her own story, speaking of her struggle to raise her young son to understand that there are children and families in Gaza who are suffering too, the challenge of going to work to help people who have so many needs when so worried, of the fact that this stress has gone on and on and on.  “The immune system of the society is breaking down.”  Children are quitting school.  Adults are out of work.  Crime, addictions and divorce have increased.  The people with the most resources are leaving.  When asked why she didn’t leave, she replied that this is her home and talked about being needed there.  Yet still there was no demonization of the Palestinians.  “I don’t know where good and bad is, there is just misfortune all around.”

Eric Yellin, left, is a life long resident of Israeli kibbuzim who now lives in Migvan Kibbutz Sderot with his family and participates in regular dialogue with Palestinians from the West Bank and Gaza in an effort to understand the humanity of the other side. Nomika Zion, right, is the founder of the urban kibbutz, Migvan, which partners with Gvanim to support the Sderot community.

The next speakers were from a nearby Kibbutz.  Again we heard of the impact of chronic stress.  “There is no ‘post-’ to this traumatic stress syndrome.”  The rockets, though frequent, are not very powerful.  Some have died, some have been injured, but their biggest impact is the emotional injury.    Yet again, out of that pain, came determined voices insisting on the humanity of the people of Gaza. 

They spoke of efforts to stay in dialogue with people in Gaza and to bring people together whenever possible.  “We are all tools in political interests.”  While they seem to be overwhelmed by the larger political arguments, they strive to simply hold on to friendships, to recognize each other’s humanity.  Again we heard the feelings of hopelessness mixed with determination to do what can be done, to not give in to hate.

From there we went to a hilltop on the edge of town to look at Gaza.  Our security guide again spoke of the people he knew from Gaza that he doesn’t see anymore, then spoke of the efforts to protect his community.  It was near sunset and the view to Gaza City, with green fields and hills in the foreground, was very beautiful, very pastoral.  Yet above us hung the dirigible watching Gaza and, thick in the air, the knowledge that a rocket could be launched at any time. 

Remnants of various versions of exploded homemade Kassam rockets. The red and green rocket on the left is from Hamas. The rocket in the middle landed on October 31, the morning of our visit. . Rocket design is specific to the group that sent them.

Our visit ended with a trip to the police station where there is a collection of some of the rockets that had landed – including the one that came today to a nearby kibbutz. 

It was a tired and overwhelmed group that climbed on the bus.  We drove toward Hebron on the route that might one day be the “bridge” (i.e. some sort of limited access transport route) between Gaza and the West Bank, then went north to Bethlehem.  Our sharing this evening was rich and thoughtful/thought provoking.  And we go to bed very aware of our relative safety.         

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