Coming of Age Under Qassam Rockets

Anav Silverman
frontpagemag.com
18 May '10
Posted before Shabbat

JERUSALEM 11.5.10: With two months until the end of the school year, several students at the religious AMIT high school of Sderot found themselves fulfilling a lifelong dream. Rotem Timsit and nine other Sderot girls, high school-aged actresses, who are part of Sderot Media Center’s Community Treatment Theater, got to perform in the Knesset this past Tuesday.

In front of a full house which included Knesset speaker and MK Reuven Rivlin, former Defense Minister Amir Peretz and other MKs, as well as students from Boyar High School of Jerusalem, the girls performed Children of Qassam Avenue. A theatrical production that tells the story of teenage girls growing under rocket fire, the play is based on the true life experiences of the Sderot girls, who spent a year undergoing drama therapy to overcome PTSD symptoms resulting from rocket terror. “This is more than just a play,” said Noam Bedein, director of Sderot Media Center. “The idea of this production is to inspire a change in perception of the Sderot-Gaza conflict. The past decade of rocket attacks, and the tremendous psychological damage done to a population of young children and teenagers, is often completely ignored or overlooked by mainstream media both in Israel and internationally.”

“The first place to begin this change of perception is in the Knesset,” said Bedein. “We hope that our political leaders recognize the powerful advocacy tool we have established in this community theater concept. This is the only platform out there presenting Israel’s side of the Sderot-Gaza conflict through the voices of Israeli youth who have suffered from Gaza rocket attacks. ”

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