This is the second post about the Pardes trip.
In the afternoon, after we had gone to the Bedouin villages, we went to a town right near the Gaza border called Sderot.
A little background history on Sderot: In the early 1950s the prime minister wanted to create towns in the Negev to make sure that the land was not empty. These towns were important so that surrounding countries didn’t go past the border and it made it harder to take over Israel. Sderot is one of these towns. People coming to Israel in the early 1950s were brought to live in Sderot even if they didn’t want to.
Sderot is a cheaper town than many other Israeli towns, so once people live/ move there, it is very difficult to move to another city. This is a big problem because it traps people in the town. Although some people want to leave Sderot, many people are also moving there now because it is cheap and the city has a fast train that makes it easy to commute and the community is very welcoming.
Sderot is so close to the border so when rockets are launched from Gaza, people in Sderot only have 15 seconds to go into a bomb shelter. Since there is so little time to get into a bomb shelter, there are bomb shelters everywhere. Next to every bus stop there is a bomb shelter, and on playgrounds there are also bomb shelters. We passed by a playground with bomb shelters in the shape of caterpillars. I never expected a bomb shelter to be in the shape of an animal! ?
Some of the past 20ish years, 300 rockets per year have landed in Sderot.
Near Sderot, we went to a viewpoint where we could see Gaza.
At the end if the day, we went to someone’s house on a moshav (Moshav Netiv HaAsara) and someone talked to us about building relationships with Palestinians living in Gaza. That it is not as easy as it sounds because Palestinians in Gaza are trapped and the Israelis can’t go in, so they can’t meet face to face. Different people FaceTime with each other, and the person who talked to us, finds journalists to bring in gifts and letters to Gaza.
Right before we went back on the bus to Jerusalem, we drove by one of the walls between the moshav and Gaza. This wall has mosaics on it and shares the message of peace.
Even though the day was super long, I am glad I went. I was so glad that we heard such an optimistic view about the possibility of the peace.
– Naomi
Some of the rockets that have been launched into Sderot
View of Gaza from nearby Sderot
This is a part of the peace wall between the moshav and Gaza (this picture is from the internet because I didn’t take any good photos)
A caterpillar bomb shelter