Today we got the chance to tour a small Israeli city called Sderot (שדרות). Sderot is really close to the Gaza Strip – about 9 miles. Being this close makes it a dangerous place because it could be the first place Hamas would think of to bomb. With everything that is said in the news about Gaza, people might not want to live in Sderot.
Currently about 26,000 people live in Sderot, which is actually impressive because it was established in the 50’s. At that time there were only Kibbutzim and Moshavot in the Negev, and it was not until the early 90’s that Sderot was officially made a city. Waves of immigration have contributed to its development, giving it a very mixed population of people from Iraq, Iran, Northern Africa, Romania, Russia, Ethiopia… There is also a small Muslim and Christian population. Not only does Sderot have a very mixed population, but it is also one of the most protected cities in the world. There are bomb shelters everywhere and steel roofs to protect buildings from missiles. The reason for this is because Sderot is so close to the Gaza border, the iron dome can’t always protect them from attacks. Ten years ago the situation was much worse. They didn’t have as many shelters and missile attacks were very common. There are stories of people saving their loved ones from attacks by covering them with their bodies. The Israeli government finally decided to invest a huge amount of money to protect Sderot and build all the shelters. Now there are sirens and shelters everywhere. We talked to a teen from Sderot who helps run a youth group, and he said that in the event of an attack, he knows where to go no matter where he is in the city. He also said that when you grow up with the threat of bombs everyday, it becomes less and less scary.
This was very enlightening for me. I’ve never had to live under the threat of an attack. I am really impressed with how the people didn’t just leave because of the danger and instead found solutions and pushed forward with their lives. They even focused on how the city looks by building shelters in a park that look like tunnels for children to play in. If I had to guess I would say that when sirens went off, the people of Sderot would be very calm and just get to the nearest shelters as soon as possible. This was just really interesting to me because I’ve never experienced anything like that (nor do I want to). To see how the teen acted so nonchalant about it all was remarkable.