My recent planning trip to israel

Last month I went to Israel as part of the pre-planning trip for our bike ride in April.

 

As I sat in the garden at Kibbutz Derot in Sha'ar HaNegev last Friday afternoon I heard two explosions nearby...I knew that Kibbutz Derot was out of range of the missiles which were being shot daily from nearby Gaza City (Gaza City is  only a few miles away and from some points in Sha'ar HaNegev its  only about a mile away).

Later on , as I asked what the explosions were I was told that they were two missiles which had fallen into an open field nearby. Luckily nobody was hurt.

 

We had Shabbat dinner that night at a home in a kibbutz very close to the Gaza border and in range of the missiles. I was concerned and asked what we should do if the missile alarm sounded. I was told not to worry as missiles were rarely fired on Shabbat. Not because of the religious significance of the day but rather because nobody was outside and the missile damage would be minimal. Missiles were usually fired from around 8am in the morning when people would be out and about and the chances of a fatality were higher. But I was shown the bomb shelter which was inside the house. It was very much like the laundry room in my house except that it had extra thick, solid walls and the doors and windows were made of steel. WOW, a bomb shelter in a house!

Most of the homes are fitted with an alarm system that is activated when a missile is fired. When the signal is heard, everyone has fifteen seconds to get to a shelter. As a South African who lived with alarm systems and electric fences, this gave a whole new meaning to the word 'security'. Anyone who is not near a shelter should lie on the ground with their hands over their head and hope that they do not get a direct hit.

 

One of the Kibbutz's, which is the closest to Gaza City, is so close that they do not even have alarms as there is simply not enough time. This Kibbutz has suffered the highest number of fatalities.

 

When I asked some of the people who live in this area why they don't leave, they looked at me in surprise and said, "leave, but whey? This is our home. We protect the borders of Israel. If we leave, the Palestinians will just move closer."

 

There is so much that we take for granted in our everyday life:

Our kids worry about which colleges they will get into when they leave school. Israeli kids only think about college when the leave the Army. Every Israeli kid goes to the Army for between two and five years!

I send my kids to school everyday without any thought for their safety. In Sha'ar HaNegev, the protected classrooms, which are missile proof are blue on the inside. If the kids are not in a blue classroom when the alarm sounds, they have fifteen seconds to get to a shelter.

There are no outdoor sports at  school. Its simply too dangerous.

Sometimes there are only two missiles launched each day, sometimes its ten and at the height of the war a few weeks ago, there would sometimes be forty to sixty.

 

I cannot even begin to imagine what this would be like.

 

As part of our pre-planning trip for the bike ride in April, we left Sha'ar HeNegev and drove up to Metullah, the northernmost point of Israel, where could look out over Lebanon and Syria. Then we rode our bikes from Metullah, up the Golan Heights , over the Jordan River and down to the Kinneret, the Sea of Galilee. From there we headed west, along the Jordan border to Caesarea, on the coast of the Mediterranean. From there it was to Tel-Aviv and then through the West Bank, to Jerusalem.

It was pretty amazing as I got to see most of Israel and I could appreciate her natural beauty, ancient history and natural resources.

 

The people living in Sha'ar HaNegev told me that they feel abandoned by the rest of the world. Even by their own Government. I mean, who lives in that kind of danger anywhere else in the world ? If something like that were happening anywhere in the US, troops would be called in immediately.

 

 So, in April, myself and another twelve people will be riding from the north to the south of Israel, 350 miles over six days. This bike ride is a fundraiser to build a missile proof school in Sha'ar HaNegev. A place where the kids can learn and be safe every day. Something so basic , something that we take for granted, something crucial to the existence of the area.