SMC - Sderot a city of PTSD without the post

Tamblr..
Sderot Media Center..
15 May '12..

We walk downstairs and underground into a bomb shelter where the Sderot municipality is housed. The first words from Shalom Halevi, a Sderot native and city representative: “I understand that there are those of you who are frightened. Be cool. Don’t be frightened. We are living like this 11 years.”

Over the past 11 years, thousands of rockets fired from the Gaza Strip have targeted Sderot, a city in the western Negev that lies less than a mile from the border. Over 1,800 rockets have hit the city in the last three years alone.

The city’s name, meaning “boulevard,” refers to its placement in a network of avenues of trees planted in the Negev to fight desertification and beautify the arid landscape, evoking Ben Gurion’s efforts to “make the desert bloom,” a central tenant in Zionist ideology. Sderot was founded in 1951 as a transit camp for Mizrahi immigrants fleeing as part of the Jewish exodus from Arab and Muslim countries. They lived in the desert, housed in tents and shacks, until the government began constructing small apartments for the residents in 1954. Throughout the following decades, different immigrant groups flowed in from Romania, Ethiopia, Bucharia, and the Ukraine, culminating in the Russian aliyah in the 1990s, during which the city absorbed so many new immigrants that Sderot doubled its population. The diversity of immigrants absorbed means that Sderot is not without its social and economic problems. Sderot is a city of many different immigrant communities, complicating social cohesion, but it is also one that is deeply economically depressed. Despite government efforts to create housing and factories, the city holds one of the highest unemployment rates in the country.

Silverman - A New Player in Gaza's Rocket War Against Israel

Islamic Jihad Steps Up Rocket War Against Israel Civilians

Photo: Anav Silverman
Ashkelon resident, Liz Sheetrit stands

in front of the rocket-damaged home.

Anav Silverman
Sderot Media Center
01 November '11

http://www.sderotmedia.org.il/bin/content.cgi?ID=851&q=3

Sixteen-year-old Liz Sheetrit and her family stand in their homes with shell-shocked expressions as they point to their burnt front yard and shattered kitchen window. "I can't believe this happened to us,"  Liz exclaims. A Grad rocket fired from Gaza struck the family's street this past Saturday night, damaging four homes in their neighborhood, leaving a splattering of shrapnel holes, shattered glass, and pieces of metal stuck in the housing exterior.

Liz says she feels only slightly lucky. She and her family were thankfully not home at the time of the explosion but her dog, which was home at the time of the explosion, harbored some marks from the attack.

The Sheetrit family and the other neighborhood families are lucky for another reason too. They live in relatively new homes, all of which have bomb shelters. "Our neighbors entered their shelter as soon as the alarm went off. If they had been anywhere near the kitchen or living room, someone could have been seriously injured," Liz's father said.

More than fifty percent of Ashkelon's residents live in older buildings that were built without shelters, according to a municipal spokesperson, Yossi Assoulin.

"But thanks to the Iron Dome, residents here, even during Grad rocket attacks from Gaza, haven't lost their sense of security," explains Assoulin.

The Iron Dome is a mobile air defensive system that was developed in Israel to intercept incoming Palestinian rockets through a special radar detecting system. Although the system has been criticized for its steep operating costs, it has become an important tool in defending Israeli civilians by successfully shooting down countless rockets. Israel plans to invest $1 billion in the Iron Dome missile defense system in coming years, of which the US Congress has approved to provide $205 million.

However, the defense system offers no guarantees.

On the same day that the Sheetrit family's home was struck by rocket shrapnel, an Ashkelon man, Moshe Ami, a father of four, was killed in a rocket attack on his way home. The air raid siren, which gives Ashkelon residents about 25 seconds to find cover, went off as Ami was driving home in the heart of the city along Rabin Road. Unable to make it to the shelter in time, a piece of shrapnel from the rocket explosion mortally struck Ami and he later died of his wounds in Ashkelon's Barzilai Medical Center.

Daphne Anson - Hey, Al Beeb, It's Your Coverage Of Sderot He Must Be Talking About!

Daphne Anson
17 July '11

http://daphneanson.blogspot.com/2011/07/hey-al-beeb-its-your-coverage-of-sderot.html

Remember the findings of the Natal report which reveals very high levels of post-traumatic stress in the population of Sderot, especially among children, as the result of relentless Qassam attacks from Gaza such as this one? http://daphneanson.blogspot.com/2011/07/blighted-lives-of-sderot.html:



In the wake of Natal's findings, Noam Bedein, Director of the Sderot Media Centre, has issued an open letter urging the mainstream media to alter the way it reports attacks like the one in the video:

"The disproportional coverage of these rocket launchings and explosions is found in a dry, terse report on mainstream media that takes a few seconds of news time. The issue is barely mentioned by the MSM [mainstream media], who state (luckily so far) only that there were no injuries and no damage to property. That is not really the case, as anyone who lives in constant dread of the next missile knows well. 

Sderot Media Center urge you to emphasize these strikes more emphatically, to describe them as illegitimate and criminal examples of warfare against innocent civilians. Otherwise, what the media are aiding unintentionally is tacit acceptance of Islamic extremist terror against innocent civilians. 

We ask that you change your reports to the following:

1.If there are no injuries, it is important to stress that there were no physical injuries reported.There surely are mental injuries, even though we will not let the terrorists change our lives. 

2. It is crucial to mention each time how many rockets have been launched against Israel since the last ceasefire of January 18, 2009.

As of today, July 15, 2011, there have been 788 rocket launchings from Gaza aimed at the southern residents of Israel. This has to be brought home again and again so the world will know. 

We have decided to write this open letter to all the mainstream media and ask for a change in awareness of the significance and after-effects of this constant bombardment of people trying to live normal lives in an area that has never been disputed even by the UN, that is, unless the very existence of the State of Israel is in dispute." http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/145768

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Two years after Goldstone, Geneva comes to Sderot

Noam Bedein
Sderot Media Center
10 March '11

On Wednesday March 9th, 2011, an unprecedented video conference was convened at the Sderot City Hall. Municipality representatives and residents from Sderot and Asheklon were on one side of the screen, while, on the other side, were the 'new' judges in Geneva from the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR).

Among the 'new' OHCHR judges was a leading US Judge, Mary Davis, who is in charge of investigating thousands of law suits against Israel's December 2008 to January 2009 military response to the rocket attacks from Gaza. Two years after Operation Cast Lead, this Commission is still examining the results of the IDF military operation in Gaza, while hardly anyone is examining the results of Gaza aerial attacks on Sderot and the Western Negev.

Two years ago, the OHCHR asked Sderot Media Center www.sderotmedia.org.il to bring Israeli victims of Gaza attacks to Geneva. For Wednesday's video conference, SMC was again asked to assist the Commission. OHCHR wanted to hear the human side of the story on the ground in Sderot, something that no UN body has done at any time in the past 10 years of Gaza attacks on this city. As a reminder, Sderot is the only city in the Western world whose civilian population has been under sustained aerial attacks from a radical Islamic-controlled entity.

On Wednesday, the Sderot municipality hosted representatives of the International Jewish Association of Lawyers. Several people participated in the video conference: Sderot Mayor David Boskila; the head of the Sderot Parents Association, Mrs. Hava Gad; a representative of the Ashkelon Municipality, Anat Barkovitz; and Ashkelon's Barzilai hospital spokesperson, Lea Malol.

Each panelist had only a few minutes to tell their side of the story, beginning with Mrs. Malol. She described working at the hospital, which was not protected against the Iranian-manufactured Grad missiles. She explained what it was like to treat over 500 Israeli and Palestinian patients from Gaza: "What other hospital in the world would allow itself to function under 10 years of rocket threat - with no vacations, doctors and nurses worrying about their own children, thousands of children with PTSD symptoms, not including the deaths and over 1,000 injuries which resulted from rocket attacks over the past few years".

(Read full "Two years after Goldstone, Geneva comes to Sderot")

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1 million Israelis are asking: "Who's next?"

Noam Bedein
Sderot Media Center
24 February '11

Last night, Wednesday the 23rd of March, was the first time since Operation Cast Lead that an Iranian Grad missile exploded in Be'er Sheba, 40km from Gaza.

Arriving at the scene of the rocket strike Thursday morning, in the Northern neighborhoods of Be'er Sheba, brought me back to the terror scenes in Sderot of the past few years. For several years, rocket attacks were part of my daily routine living and working at the Sderot Media Center. When the Tzeva Adom sounded, I would go to the neighborhoods where the rocket exploded and film the scene. The next day, I would return, documenting the 'the day after, listening to the stories of residents on what occurred to them the day before.


Video: Noam Bedein, Sderot Media Center

In Be'er Sheba, I saw the same scenes I'd witnessed in Sderot: shattered car windshields; the shrapnel holes making "windows" on the homes; the radius of damage from where the missile exploded; the 'cover up' of the missile hole; like nothing happened and expecting the people to go back to normal; the holes in the iron doors; the Shabbat candles standing among shattered glasses; pictures of Rabbis hanging untouched on what remained of the walls; frightened and excited residents of the damaged or destroyed homes who just want to share their personal experience with the world; hearing story, counting the amount of times I heard the words; Luck, coincidence, and miracles.

(Read full "1 million Israelis are asking: "Who's next?")

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'Zionist Propagandist': Dialogue or Demonization?

Noam Bedein
Sderot Media Center
02 November '10


October 2010 was my fifth tour of college campuses in the United States. This tour was facilitated by CAMERA and the ZOA.

It has been ten years since Kassam rockets started raining down on Sderot and the Western Negev, and almost five years since I moved to Sderot.

For the first time, a visit to U.S.has left me somewhat shaken.

The scene: A standard campus presentation at the University of Texas, in Austin.

I had never been to Austin before but had heard about the Texas State Capital and its blend of 19th and 21st Century architecture, Universities, high-tech industries, with rolling hills and forests surrounding the city that, according to a friend in Israel who once lived there, are remarkably similar to the hills and forests that I travel from Sderot to Gush Etzion and Hebron.

The campus event was titled ‘Iran in Sderot’s backyard’. The presentation focused on the human side of the story, relating the daily reality of living in Sderot under the constant threat of aerial attacks from Gaza.

My talk concentrated on the the two years since ‘Cast Lead’, the massive build up of bomb shelters, and the moral dilemma of fighting terrorists who launch their rockets from behind the collective human shield of Gaza's civilian population.

Stills from pro-Palestinian video showing Noam Bedein, Director of Sderot Media Center, transforming from a Human Being into a Jewish Demon

Entering the building on the Austin campus where the presentation was set, I was met by a number of pro-Palestinian protesters holding signs reading NO OCCUPATION = NO ROCKETS, How is Gaza not like Warsaw?, and 1417 Palestinian killed in Gaza vs 13 Israelis.

It isn't the first time I’ve encountered protesters demonstrating against me just because I’m Israeli Zionist. In Austin, the protesters would enter the auditorium and try to provoke me with demonizing questions and comments they attempted to disguise under the slogan "We want to open a dialogue".

I wish they had been sincere about wanting a fact-based discussion, but unfortunately this was not the case.

(Read full story)

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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. ”

(Read full story)

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Purim Recollections: The Real Heroes of Sderot

Anav Silverman
Sderot Media Center
04 March '10

“The next Megillah reading will be at 6:30 pm sharp,” said a voice on the intercom.

I was at the Jerusalem Central Bus Station. It was the eve of Purim and I had just arrived to the station from Ashkelon. The rain was pouring outside and I knew there was no way I would make it in time to the Megilah reading at the synagogue I usually attend near my home.

So I decided I would stay for the reading at the station, thinking to myself-not my ideal location but still--what other bus station in the world would offer unique opportunity on Purim?

I found the synagogue on the third floor which was quickly becoming full of people. Chabadniks, Breslavim, Haredim, Israeli soldiers, women in pants and men in payot. Religious, secular and traditional Jews were all gathering together to hear the story of our Jewish heroes from two thousand years ago.

Five minutes left before Megillah reading and not enough Megillahs to go around.

I looked around me. We were all strangers but there was that familiar feeling of family in the air. We were all here, all united in one purpose-- to recall our story of national survival and strength over two thousand years ago.

It’s an ongoing story for our people and in Israel today the situation is no different.

I had come back to Jerusalem after spending the day in Sderot where I work for Sderot Media Center, a social media organization dedicated to bringing the voices of Sderot residents to the attention of the global community. As a media center, we have made many acquaintances and friends in the Sderot community, all of whom share survival stories from rocket attacks.

(Read full story)
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Sderot--a return to normalcy?

Anav Silverman
Sderot Media Center
17 February '10

Health professionals weigh in on the state of Sderot civilians post-Operation Cast Lead

Although news reports have frequently described the situation in Sderot as back to normal-with real estate having gone up 20 to 30 percent, 1,400 new homes approved for construction, and families returning to the city-behind the headlines the impact of previous rocket attacks are still hammering at the population.

Hila Barzilai, the director of the Sderot Resilience Center (Merkaz Hosen) recently told Sderot Media Center that in the past six months following Operation Cast Lead, hundreds of Sderot children have turned to the resilience center for therapy treatment.

“These kids come to us with their parents to seek therapy for the trauma built up from years of rocket attacks,” says Barzilai. "These problems did not just begin post-Operation Cast Lead. We are talking about eight years of constant rocket attacks whose psychological effects are now emerging during this period of calm."

Over 364 new patients arrived to the resilience center six months after Operation Cast Lead, according to Barzilai. "We do everything possible to limit the long-lasting affects of these rocket attacks but it is a long and drawn-out process.”

The average recovery period for a child can take up to eight months or more, said Barzilai. One of the challenges of trauma patients face in the recovery process are the sporadic rocket attacks that still continue to hit Sderot and the western Negev region.

Barzilai notes in frustration that "it takes one rocket attack to destroy any progress in the patient's therapy. The siren alert will trigger the flashbacks of terror and fear in the child or adult, which means that the therapy process has to begin anew."

(Read full article)
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I guess our New Israel Fund check got lost in the mail

Jacob Shrybman
Sederot Media Center
16 February '10

When the news of the New Israel Fund (NIF) paying around $8 million to organizations that provided the Goldstone Report with all its condemnations of Israel, it was clear that the “New Israel” desired by the New Israel Fund is one with more than 9 years of consistent rocket fire.

Our organization, Sderot Media Center (SMC), with a yearly budget of close to $200,000, worked tirelessly on a formal report that was requested by the Goldstone Commission itself, which encompassed the impact of the rocket fire on the residents of the Sderot region. We sent this formal report accompanied by photographs and videos to depict to this UN committee, which did not visit Sderot, what it is like to live under either daily rocket fire or the threat of daily rocket fire over the course of then eight years. The Goldstone Committee then flew our director, Noam Bedein, to the UN Headquarters in Geneva to give a 30-minute presentation/testimony in front of the committee on this daily reality lived in Sderot.

The New Israel Fund paid around $8 million to organizations that provided information to the Goldstone Report. As a cited provider of information for the Goldstone Report, I guess our New Israel Fund check got lost in the mail?

(Read full article)
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Israel on Canadian college campuses; an up-hill battle

Noam Bedein
Sderot Media Center
04 February '10

Presenting the human side of Sderot, Israel and the western Negev would seem innocuous enough, as it is the only region in the western world where rockets and missiles target a civilian population. The people of southern Israel have their own story to share.

Yet after a 13-day coast-to-coast visit to Canadian college campuses, organized by Hillel Canada and the CIJA umbrella organization of Canadian Jewry, it would seem that even Sderot residents must fight for their legitimate right to live in the land of Israel.

The purpose of this trip was to balance the after-effects of the “Gaza narrative”, exactly one year after Israel's 21-day Operation Cast Lead in the Gaza Strip.

On Canadian college campuses, the challenge became to justify the very existence of the city of Sderot.

This was best exemplified by an article published in a Winnipeg student newspaper, penned by a Palestinian-Canadian sociology student. This student amazingly attacked the credibility of another student for sharing her experiences visiting Sderot. This student had described her shock at the ’15 second’ alarm, known as the “Color Red,” which warns Sderot residents of only a few seconds to escape to safety from the time the missile is fired from Gaza to the time it explodes in Sderot.

The Palestinian student showed little sympathy for Sderot under fire:



“ 'Sderot’ is actually a settlement on the Palestinian land of Najd, an illegally occupied territory stolen from Palestinians. It is a town created on the ashes of an ethnically cleansed and defaced Palestinian village....You want to talk about ‘terror’? Najd’s Palestinian villagers were expelled on May 13th, 1948 by Israeli forces before Israel was even declared a state.”

Here is a well-educated student born in Canada, with Palestinian descent, that calls the Israeli town of Sderot an illegitimate “settlement” constructed on the ruins of an Arab village abandoned during the 1948 war. Indeed this same student makes no acknowledgement of the historical fact that between 1951-1953, the Jews that settled in Sderot were from among the 850,000 Jews expelled in masses from Arab countries in the Middle East. During and after the 1948 war, 670,000 Palestinian Arab refugees were fled or forced from their homes.

Indeed, this Canadian-Palestinian college student was not the first to rationalize the thousands of aerial attacks and terrorizing of Sderot and southern Israel civilians.

From shelled to sheltered: Sderot's new reality

Jeff Abramowitz
Deutsche Presse-Agentur
Sderot Media Center
24 December 09

Sderot, Israel (DPA) - This winter, Eli Asayag has opened the windows of his cafe. A year ago they were tightly shuttered, hopeful protection against rockets that were raining down onto southern Israel and especially on Sderot, located about three kilometres from the Gaza Strip.

Sderot residents are breathing easier today, 12 months after last winter's war between Israel and Gaza militants. Israel had launched the campaign after years of rocket fire from Gaza on its southern towns and villages.

However, even though rocket fire is no longer a feature of daily life in Sderot and other towns and villages close to the Gaza Strip, it is not yet a distant memory. Rockets are still launched from the salient, but in far, far fewer numbers.

"This last year was one of the calmest in the last 10, possibly even 20 years. Only 284 missiles were launched at southern Israel from the Gaza Strip, compared to 3,200 in 2008," says Noam Bedein, who heads an NGO in Sderot.

"We feel the conflict has not ended 100 per cent, but we do feel a difference," notes Sderot supermarket owner Yakov Dahan.

"At last our children can go out onto the streets, to join in outdoor activities," he says.

Yet for all the palpable sense of relief residents say they feel after Israel's offensive, the trauma of the past decade, when a total of 12,000 rockets were launched at southern Israel, remains.

(TY to :"Israel Patriot" for Youtube suggestion)


Residents still remember the fear that the constant threat of rocket attacks used to bring.

(Continue article)
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A Year After the Gaza War: The Forgotten Children of Sderot

Stephanie L. Fried
PajamasMedia.com
24 December 09

It’s been a year since Operation Cast Lead, and from the media silence, one would assume that all is quiet on the Gaza/Israel front. There’s been scant reportage of projectile launches coming out of Gaza into Sderot and southern Israel. That’s probably because people aren’t dying.

But a quick call to Sderot Media Center sheds light on the situation as it truly stands. There have been 283 missiles, rockets, and mortar rounds launched into Israel since last January. And almost every time there’s a launch, air-raid sirens sound to warn residents that they have 15 seconds before touchdown to take cover in bomb shelters.

Since 2001, the city of Sderot has been hit by 10,000 missiles launched by Palestinian militants based in the Hamas-run Gaza enclave. The entire town has suffered but those most traumatized are the children, whose nightmares return every time a siren sounds.

From toddlers to teenagers, more than 80% of Sderot’s 8000 kids are living proof of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Many of them wet their beds, suffer bad dreams, suck their thumbs, experience chronic anxiety, sleep in their parents’ beds, and exhibit lingering physical and psychological manifestations that accompany life in an environment where they have had to scramble for cover in life-and-death situations.

Until now, they’ve had therapy resources available via the town’s Resilience Center Treatment Clinic. The center staff treat the kids’ symptoms and guides parents on coping with their children’s trauma. The center also serves as a safe haven.

But recently the news came that the Resilience Center Treatment Clinic, which is dependent on donations and subsidies, is in jeopardy of shutting down. There’s simply not enough money to keep it going. Rocket and missile barrages minus casualties have a funny way of turning formerly exuberant private donors into “we had to re-prioritize our spending” withholders. The Israeli government has also had to re-prioritize what comes from its coffers.

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Sderot Rally for Hope: Stop Rocket Attacks on Civilians!

On Dec 31, the Gaza Freedom March, a massive rally organized by the International Coalition to End the Illegal Siege of Gaza, will convene in Cairo. Over 1000 participants from 42 countries along with Israeli “peace” groups will protest against the Siege of Gaza and mark a year to Operation Cast Lead.

Supporters of the Gaza march include Roger Walters (Pink Floyd), Nobel laureates, writers, film producers, British and Canadian Members of Parliaments, and more.

In response to the Gaza Freedom March, Sderot and residents of southern Israel are leading the: Sderot Rally for Hope: Stop Rocket Attacks on Civilians!

Organized by the Sderot Media Center and in coalition with the Sderot Municipality, Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Sapir College, IDC Herzlyia, WUJS, Eretz Nehederet, Bnei Akiva Olami, Sderot Alon Madaim Elementary School, the march will convene at the Yad Mordechai Junction at 13:00. A Knesset Minister and Sderot municipality officials will be present as area residents, international students, diplomatic officials, and Israeli youth march to the Erez Crossing, where a ceremony for civilian victims of terror around the world will be held at 13:45.

The rally will highlight Sderot and southern Israelis' desire for a new decade of peace and a message of hope for residents of Gaza and citizens around the globe.

Rally Outline:

13:00: Marchers convene at Yad Mordechai Junction, depart by foot.
13:45: Reach Erez Crossing where Knesset Minister and Sderot municipality officials will address rally.
14:00: Candle Lighting Ceremony for victims of terror and civilian targets around the world.
14:30: Music Performance and Sderot girl reads letter to Gaza residents.
15:00: Release of white balloons with messages from Sderot children to Gaza.

Your participation in this march is crucial to counter the anti-Israel, anti-peace march into Gaza on the same day, and to show the world that we, Jews and non-Jews, Israelis and non-Israelis, desire peace and an end to terror in Israel and worldwide.

-Sderot Media Center Team
sderotinfo@gmail.com

For more details: contact:
Anav Silverman: 0528607696
Meital Ohayon: 0542508915
Noam Bedein: 0545598977
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Sderot: The World Turns its Back

Jacob Shrybman

israelnationalnews.org

15 September 09

It doesn't seem that there will be any quiet.

Yesterday alone, over 89 trucks of international aid and gasoline were poured into the Gaza Strip. Since September 1, 2009, over 700 truckloads of international aid, including over 1,760,000 liters of gasoline have been given to the Gaza Strip. Since the end of Operation Cast Lead on January 18 of this year, over 2,000 truckloads of far more than 37,000 tons of humanitarian aid has been delivered to the Gaza Strip.

Staging ground for international aid trucks in front of the Gaza Strip
Jacob Shrybman

As the international community continues its uproar over the humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip, a spokesman for the Israeli Civil Administration, which manages the Palestinian Authority requests for aid, goods and gasoline, says that these are in fact decreased amounts.

"Over the past two to three months we have seen a definitive decrease in the requests from the Palestinian Authority, because they have goods, foods and medicines that still have not been used," Guy Inbar says. He continues by explaining the situation inside the Gaza Strip: "As we have said before, there is no humanitarian crisis in Gaza."

While sitting for hours watching truck after truck drive in and out of the Gaza Strip, I spoke over the phone with Dr. Adriana Katz, director of three of the five mental health and trauma centers in Sderot. She told me that there has been no change in the lack of budgets for the centers. The area's trauma centers, which are constantly treating the victims of largely psychological terrorism, are being forced to close their doors. The Emergency Center in Sderot, which is the first aid clinic that treats victims immediately after an attack, was shut down this past July; the director of the Sderot Trauma Center, Dalia Yosef, has been let go; and the area's four remaining centers are all set to be closed by December 1.

How can a world that prides itself on slogans and political jargon regarding "both sides of the conflict" and "two states for two peoples" completely turn its back on Sderot?

After a letter from the Sderot Media Center to the European Union, calling for international aid for the victims of rocket fire in southern Israel, British Ambassador Tom Phillips visited the trauma centers in Sderot with the Center on June 4. Ambassador Phillips met with both Dr. Adriana Katz and Dalia Yosef regarding the situation of the trauma centers; yet, the centers still have not seen any allocation of aid.

On August 5, five top Australian parliamentarians visited the closed Emergency Center in Sderot, but the centers still have not seen any allocation of aid.

On August 11, Texas Governor Rick Perry and ranking Republican member of the US House Foreign Affairs Committee Ileana Ros-Lehtinen visited the closed Emergency Center in Sderot, but the centers still have not seen any allocation of aid.

With now more than 240 aerial attacks from the Gaza Strip since the end of Operation Cast Lead, and eight in the past week, Dr. Adriana Katz commented "It doesn't seem that there will be any quiet, even though I am only slated to work until December 1."

International aid trucks entering the Gaza Strip
Jacob Shrybman

An average of 80 truckloads a day of international aid and gasoline, all materials frequently used to produce the fuel for the Kassam rockets, will continue to pour into the Gaza Strip with no end date in sight. And the world turns its back on the thousands and thousands of Israeli victims of the past decade of rocket attacks.

Jacob Shrybman is an activist and writer with the Sderot Media Center.