In the car ride south from Tel Aviv toward Sderot, the neighboring Israeli city to Gaza which is one of the populated places that the rocket launchers in Gaza have determined they can hit with unsophisticated Kassam rockets, each week, launched from the Strip, I started to make a list of things I wouldn't do if I lived in Sderot. Get my eyebrows waxed, go to a movie, go to a yoga class, make a dentist appointment or get a cavity filled, be in a crowded place, sleep.
When the red alert sounds throughout the streets of the relatively small City of Sderot, the people have approximately 15 seconds to take cover before the rocket explodes upon impact to the ground. So, I thought, I'd never want to be in a situation where I didn't have freedom of movement or to be in a situation where my mind would be less than alert, in the event that I would be in a spot where a rocket would land bringing indescribable pain to my life, or an end to it, for that matter.
A few miles before our first stop, the driver turned down the radio and Eitan recited the Tefillat HaDerech, the prayer of the traveler. We were, after all, about to enter some shady territory. Afterward, the radio was turned up and we continued to hum along to Neil Young's, "Harvest Moon."
Then, at Yad Morecai, a few kilometers outside of Sderot, we pulled to what may be the only gas station/rest stop/cafe/sundries store still open for business down that way, to use the toilet and apparently to join a convoy of other cars headed to Sderot to show solidarity with the people there, and to do our Friday shopping. About 30 other cars were in the parking lot of this rest station, a couple of news cameras filming people attaching Israeli flags to car antennas, bumpers, rear windows and side mirrors. Some were Israeli, a few tour buses with American and British Jews were also milling about the parking lot waiting for the convoy to head to Sderot.
The driver of the car I was in also connected a flag to his rear window with Eitan's assistance.
I thought to myself, "we are moving targets, maybe I should have brought a extra pair of underwear, a tooth brush, a sweater, more water??"
Soon enough, we headed out onto the highway toward Sderot, took our place in the line of cars, and began to drive. To my right there were signs for Erez Crossing, Nahal Oz-- the "front lines," as Eitan's friend explained to me, of the border between Israel and Gaza.
After a few miles of slow, parade-style cruising, we arrived at the sign welcoming us to Sderot. What struck me about the entrance to the city were the two get-your-teeth-cleaned billboards advertising dentist services. Snickering to myself, I thought how certainly teeth cleaning is one of the main concerns for the residents of Sderot.
Along with the rest of the cars, the driver of the vehicle in which I rode, joined the honking of horns in excitement and encouragement that we were among the few Israelis who have not forgotten the people of Sderot, and that we were willing to show our support for them with our cars and grocery monies. Meanwhile, I was in the back seat breaking out in a cold sweat because the radio was too loud and I have read that people in Sderot don't ride with loud radios for fear of missing the red alert. Also, I was advised to remove my seatbelt in the event that we had to evacuate the car quickly.
I then added to my list of things that I wouldn't want to do in Sderot: be sitting in the backseat of a small, two-door sports car, moving slowly, through traffic, with a loud radio blasting.
On the driving tour through the center, I noticed the combination bus stop/bomb shelters that serve to provide shade and also shelter from falling rockets. I also observed groups of old men sitting on benches with sun hats and canes upon which old hands rested, smiling and waving at us as we slowly drove by. Store vendors had their wares out on the street and outside a candy and alcohol store, a dj was (loudly) spinning his music. Children were collecting wood for the upcoming holiday Lag B'Omer in which big bonfires are made throughout the country and children compete to collect the most wood for the biggest fire.
In fact, it felt like a city-wide block party. Finally, our driver determined we'd done enough parading and committed to a parking spot. We went in search of food and decided on a shawarma spot with big bowls of pickled vegetables and fried eggplant, which are what sold me on the place. After which we did our shopping for things like hummus, challah, orange juice, lemons and yogurt.
While walking around Sderot, we received many smiles and "kol hakavod lahem" -- which translates literally as all the respect/honor to you. People were pleased that we joined them on this Friday, in some ways risking our lives to prove the point, for Eitan-- we shouldn't be afraid to go anywhere in Israel, for his friend -- I want to show the people that I care about them, and for the rest of the convoy -- as a demonstration against the government's inactivity for the ongoing situation befalling Sderot.
I had a few things going through my mind to which I attach no final say or judgment, just thoughts. First, orginially Sderot was something along the lines of desert wasteland where the Israeli government sent Arab-Jewish immigrants from North AFrica, where they lived in tents for a time until they were able to build a more permanent residence. Later, the Russians and the Georgians were sent there. Common thread among the Sderot populations, in Israel, "Israelis" discriminated against these new immigrants and didn't want to see, let absorb and take care of them in the more established parts of the State like the Center -- the surrounds of Tel Aviv. Second, if it weren't for the rockets and protest of the situation, why would anyone go to Sderot in the first place? Like many other towns and cities, that's just what it is, another town in Israel and thus, how nice for the businesses here to enjoy some extra traffic in this time of undeclared war. Third, war always succeeds in creating opportunity for ingenuity in money-making. The "I love Sderot" t-shirts and magnets are some examples of the war being good for economy theory. Fourth, not so many miles away, the streets of cities in Gaza were and are overflowing with sewage, and diarrhea epidemics are predicted to break out amongst the old and the young. Fifth, the people of Sderot live in constant anxiety and possiblity of terror and destruction, and sometimes the anxiety is reality. The Gazans, they live in terror and destruction constantly.
I wouldn't want to live in either situation.
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