Sderot Children Featured in First-Ever International Feature Film

#film, #feature documentary,#PTSD, #missile, #kids, #children, #post trauma, #global #terrorism, #Sderot, #Sderot Media Center, # Noam Bedein, #liane thompson

Sderot Media Center to make feature documentary with acclaimed US television executive
By: Anav Sliverman

The first-ever feature length film about Sderot’s trauma children is currently underway. Sderot Media Center’s Noam Bedein has teamed up with acclaimed US Producer and Director Liane Thompson to create Missile City Kids, a film featuring the trauma-stricken children of Sderot following years of rocket fire.

Missile City Kids http://www.missilecitykids.com is a non-political project about children suffering from the terror-related post traumatic stress disorder that has engulfed the civilian population of Sderot, Israel. Sderot, an Israeli city located less than a mile away from Gaza, has been subject to 10,000 missile attacks in the past eight years.





Studies have revealed that 70-94% of Sderot's children suffer from PTSD. Many Sderot children find support at the local resilience center but due to budget cuts, the center will soon shut down.

“We want to use the power of a good film to create global awareness about terror-related PTSD in children worldwide,” Liane Thompson told Sderot Media Center.

Thompson has received three-time Prime Time Emmy nominations and a public awareness award from the American Medical Association for her work as an executive producer on the #1 television program Trauma: Life in the ER. As an executive with New York Times Television, the TV unit of The New York Times, Thompson has delivered over 130 hours of programming to US broadcasters such as Viacom’s Showtime Network, The National Geographic Channel, Discovery Communication, Inc., Discover Health, The Food Network and more.











Photos:Noam Bedein

Independently, Thompson created the anti-terror technology program, Outsmarting Terror, which aired to millions worldwide on National Geographic Television. "Outsmarting Terror was about how we fight terrorism, but as terrorism becomes a part of our daily psyche, Missile City Kids will focus on the psychological ramifications of living in a terror stricken world," said Thompson.

Many Sderot children find support at the local resilience center but due to budget cuts, the center will soon shut down. “We want to use the power of a good film to create global awareness about terror-related PTSD in children worldwide”


Missile City Kids will follow the lives of several children, portraying their day to day struggle with psychological trauma and the impact of rocket fire on their families. However, primary filming has yet to begin. The project is in the development stage seeking an executive producer or financial backing from an angel investor or donator. The producers have secured some company sponsorships including Phone.com who has given the filmmakers a US toll free number to help with fund-raising (1-877-801-6099) and PLYmedia who has offered various language subtitling and other products once the film is complete.

Film completion is still a long ways off as raising money for a documentary is proving difficult in these hard economic times. But Thompson remains optimistic that potential investors will see the film's value as a product that not only creates worldwide awareness but also generates an economic return.






http://www.missilecitykids.com

SMC’s director Noam Bedein said that it was a pleasure to work with a professional like Thompson. “We just launched fund-raising efforts last month at the social media Twitter 140 Conference and at the US-Israeli Executive Summit held in New York City.”

The Sderot Media Center (SMC)( http://sderotmedia.org.il/ ) is a non-profit organization dedicated to raising worldwide awareness to the plight of Sderot residents. SMC’s mission is to convey the “human face behind the headlines” via the arts and media.

“We hope that Missile City Kids will bring the Sderot reality a little closer to home and shed some light to the devastating impact that rocket terror has had on the children of Sderot and the Negev,” said Bedein.

Thompson plans to expand the project to other countries where children suffer from war related post trauma.

“While we are focusing on Sderot at the moment, we hope to get the budget to ultimately take the project global to include children suffering from PTSD from other countries such as Afghanistan, Cambodia, Bosnia, Rwanda and more,” Thompson added. "This is a worldwide problem."

Bearing Witness to the UN in Geneva: Sderot Media Center Director Noam Bedein Presents Sderot’s Case to UN Judges

#Geneva, #United Nations, #UN, #War crimes, #Gaza conflict, #Hamas, #Israel, #Noam Bedein, #Noam Shalit, #Sderot Media Center, #Judge Richard Goldstone, #rockets, #terror, #Palestinians

By: Noam Bedein

Director Sderot Media Center

http://www.sderotmedia.org.il/

On July 6th, I traveled to Geneva to testify before the United Nations Fact Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict. Participating in the delegations were Ashkelon Mayor Benny Vaknin, Dr Alan Marcus the director strategic planning branch in Ashkelon, Ophir Shinhar of Sapir College, and Dr. Mirelda Sidrer who was injured during a rocket attack on a medical facility at the Ashkelon mall.

*From left to right: Ashkelon Mayor Benny Vaknin, Dr. Mirelda Sidrer, Hillel Neuer and Dr. Alan Marcus.

The Israeli delegation also included Noam Shalit, who impassionedly spoke on behalf of his son, Gilad, who was abducted three years ago by Palestinian terrorists and has since been held by Hamas.

The Israeli government officially refused to cooperate with the UN mission, since the UN investigation had already formulated conclusions asserting that Israel had committed war crimes during the December-January war.
At the same time, however, the head of the UN fact finding mission, South African Judge Richard Goldstone, told the Israeli media that he would like to hear both sides of the conflict. "The aim of the public hearings was to let the face of human suffering be seen and to let the voices of the victims be heard."

In preparation for the Geneva hearing, the UN mission invited the Sderot Media Center , a Sderot NGO, to prepare material, footage and information regarding the impact of the Gaza bombardment of the Israeli civilian population in the Negev during the Gaza war. The UN Mission aimed to at obtain an unofficial Israeli perspective.

Before the UN hearing in Geneva, the Israeli delegation received a briefing from Hillel Neuer, head of NGO 'UN Watch.' Neuer provided background on the UN fact finding mission and the agenda of each judge on the UN investigating board.

During the days leading up to the testimony, it was not easy to sleep - as the only resident of Sderot and the western Negev in this delegation, knowing that there would be only 30 minutes to convey how aerial terror has devastatingly impacted the civilian population of Sderot.

At the same time, the UN afforded an opportunity for Sderot Media Center, which specializes in communicating the human story of Sderot and life under continuous rocket terror to decision makers around the world , to finally reach the UN.

While the delegation got ready to testify in the “lion’s den,” it was less than sobering to know that one of the UN judges included Professor Christine Chinkin from London. In a Sunday Times article published on January 11th , Judge Chinkin supported the allegation that “Israel’s bombardment of Gaza is not self defense, it’s a war crime.”

Israeli reporters in Geneva asked hard questions:

"Why testify before a such a ‘neutral’ judge who claims that Israel does not have the right to defend her citizens and whose actions “ amount to aggression violating international law and human rights law?"

"Why testify when the government of Israel itself has boycotted the investigation which already formulated it allegations against Israel before the investigation commenced?"

However, the presence of a UN invited delegation from Israel created a precedent.

Hillel Neuer of Human Rights Watch noted that never in the 16 years of operating in Geneva had there ever been a time when the UN invited and even sponsored a delegation from Israel to give testimony - until now.

This time, the UN provided an opportunity for ordinary people from Israel to make their voices heard across the world. It was an honor as a resident of Sderot to partake in such an event.

Yet the long road to peace and justice for Sderot and Negev residents does not end before a panel of UN judges or a commissioned report.
Residents of Israel who act as witnesses to terror against the Jewish people, are obligated to speak up and convey the experience of what it is like to live under sustained rocket attacks-defined as a terror act and crime against humanity.

*Noam Bedein in the main hall of the UN Headquarters before testifying.

After screening two short videos in front of the panel of UN judges, which depicted the 15 seconds that Sderot residents and their children have to run for their lives when the rocket alarm is activated by impending Gaza rockets, I concluded my presentation with the following thoughts and questions.

“I do not have enough fingers, to count on my hands the amount of times rockets exploded just a few meters from a kindergarten--would any other western democracy in the world tolerate even one rocket being fired towards their territory? Why is it that we must wait, until a kindergarten or classroom packed with children, is struck directly by a rocket in order for Israel to gain international support, to protect and do what is right for our own people?"

US President Barack Obama put it best when he visited a devastated home in Sderot during the 2008 campaign:
"If somebody was sending rockets into my house where my two daughters sleep at night, I’m going to do everything in my power to stop that, and would expect Israel to do the same thing."

There were no questions or reactions from the UN judges. We will all have to wait, along with all the residents of southern Israel, to peruse the Geneva verdict on the war when the UN Mission report will be released in September

Director's update on SMC's activities during ceasefire

#Sderot Media Center, #Cease fire, #British Ambassador Tom Phillips, #US Congressmen Brian Baird Keith Ellison, #Israel advocacy, #Operation Cast Lead, #Noam Bedein

June 9, 2009
www.SderotMedia.org.il

Greetings from Sderot,

This letter serves to update Sderot Media Center's supporters on the current activities of the center during the ceasefire and SMC’s present and future place in Sderot/Israel advocacy.


Noam with Canadian Embassy Political Officer, Gregory Galligan in May.

Current SMC Activities: In the past six months, since the military operation in Gaza, over 212 rockets have been fired at Israel during this ‘ceasefire’ period, the third ceasefire in the past two years. It is in these days of relative ‘quiet’ that material and information from Sderot Media Center becomes even more in demand. The number of groups and officials who have visited Sderot with SMC in the recent lull has increased dramatically since the war ended in January.


British Ambassador, Tom Phillips visits Sderot Media Center in June.


On June 4, the British Ambassador to Israel, Tom Phillips visited Sderot Media Center to learn more about our organizations’ activities and the impact of the recent rocket fire on the community-specifically the post-trauma symptoms affecting both children and adults. Check out the British Embassy's coverage of the the visit here: http://ukinisrael.fco.gov.uk/en/newsroom/?view=PressR&id=18889861.

During recent months, Sderot Media Center's Meital Ohayon has been working with top international film producer, Liane Thompson, on the first feature-length documentary on Sderot. Thompson has produced for the National Geographic Channel and Discovery Communications Inc. Visit the project's website for more information on the Sderot documentary: http://www.childrenofmissilecity.com/. The calm has also given us the opportunity to refocus our organization’s goals. On our website’s homepage you will see the three areas in which we work to generate global awareness to the Sderot story: media outreach, education, and social media projects.

With rockets and without rockets, Sderot Media Center is active in all three of these areas. More detailed information is provided below.

Media Outreach: Although SMC engages more intensively in media outreach during rocket escalations, we continue to provide regular updates and articles to Israeli and international news websites, newspapers and magazines. Jerusalem Post, YNet News, Front Page Magazine, Bangor Daily News of Maine, The Jewish Advocate of Boston, and are a few examples of news journals and websites that have carried SMC articles
during the lull.

SMC has also conducted media outreach on behalf of the Sderot trauma facilities, which are facing potential closure due to financial budget cuts. Sderot Media Center has been pressuring and corresponding with Knesset members to secure further funding for the trauma facilities , alongside Dr. Katz and Dalia Yosef, directors of the trauma facilities. Out of the NIS 6 million needed to keep five trauma centers in Sderot and the western Negev open, the Knesset has thus far provided NIS 1.5 million which will keep the centers going until December.

Education: Sderot Media Center has increased its education activities during this period of quiet. Because of the decrease in rocket attacks, the number of student groups and organizations visiting Sderot has dramatically risen, and have included visits from US and Canadian college students participating in Aish Hasbara, Young Judea, and Israel Experience programs. Since Operation Cast Lead, over 500 visitors have come through Sderot Media Center including diplomats, foreign press, governments officials and student groups.

During the quiet period, the following officials have visited Sderot with Sderot Media Center:


Noam with US Representative Keith Ellison (D-Minnesota) at the Sderot Police Station in February.

*Canadian Embassy Political Officer, Greg Galligan

*US Congressmen Brian Baird and Keith Ellison


*British Member of Parliament, Jeffrey Donaldson


*British Ambassador, Tom Phillips

Social Media Projects: Sderot Media Center has continued in full swing with the Sderot Community Treatment Theater project. A script based on rocket life in Sderot has been completed and the Sderot high school girls participating in the project will be reay to perform the play this August 2009 across Israel and eventually in the US, Canada and the U.K.

Advisory Board: As we are now officially a non-profit organization, we have established a respected board of directors and advisors who include the president of the ZOA, the head of the Israel Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center, a former Israeli foreign ministry envoy to the US, a Boston University history professor, and a Hillel campus director in Vancouver, among many other respected individuals.

SMC at the Present

In the past three years of its existence, Sderot Media Center has built trusted relationships and connections with Israeli Knesset members, the Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Jewish Agency, the Israel Government Press Office, and top correspondents from the New York Times and the UK’s Sunday Times, among others. These bodies rely on our center to provide reliable and up-to-date information on the security situation and the lasting traumatic impact of the rocket attacks on the Sderot and western Negev region.

SMC in the Future

With the Sderot Community Treatment Theater, SMC has developed a new concept in social media-combining therapy, self-expression, and documentation/presentation of Sderot life. The fact that it will take years to rehabilitate the traumatized population of

Sderot means that the human story of Sderot will continue. The social media tools which SMC provides to the Sderot community (which helps residents cope and express their traumatic experiences) will continue to serve as a vital source for Israel advocacy. Through the media art like drama, Sderot residents have the opportunity to present the Israel perspective to the world, which in the long term will balance the Gaza narrative.

In other words, the Sderot-Gaza conflict is not over yet.

We appreciate the financial support and feedback that our supporters have provided Sderot Media Center thus far. Your support has enabled Sderot Media Center to implement Sderot global awareness in the ways mentioned above. Your continued support will enable the center to continue operating and providing the residents of Sderot and the western Negev with a voice in the global media and in international policy making.
Sincerely,

Noam Bedein,
Sderot Media Center Director

British Ambassador Visits SMC and Sderot Trauma Facilities

#British Ambassador, #Tom Phillips, #trauma center, #sderot media center, #Gaza, #humanitarian crises, #Hamas, #Sderot, #rockets, #qassam

By: Anav Silverman
Sderot Media Center
www.SderotMedia.org.il

Ambassador Tom Phillips visits Sderot trauma facilities on verge of financial collapse

In light of the financial collapse facing Sderot’s trauma facilities, Sderot Media Center invited British Ambassador Tom Phillips to visit with Sderot psychologists on Thursday, June 4 to receive an in-depth overview of the crisis.

The Ambassador first visited Sderot Media Center to learn more of the organization’s ‘citizen journalism’ and its social media activities on behalf of the Sderot community. Following the visit to the media center, Ambassador Phillips met with the heads of the Sderot Trauma Center and the Shock Treatment Center where he learned of the vital role that the trauma facilities play in rehabilitating the residents of the rocket-torn community.



As much of the world tuned into US Barack Obama’s monumental speech in Cairo, Ambassador Phillips heard the impassioned speeches of Sderot Trauma Center’s director, Dalia Yosef and the head of Shock Treatment Center, Dr. Adrianna Katz.
The directors of the trauma facilities reported that lack of funding will force both trauma centers to close down by December 2009.

Dr. Katz explained that the Shock Treatment Center was opened three years ago to provide immediate treatment to Sderot victims who experience shock after a Qassam attack. Inside the shock center, the Ambassador viewed the small room where shock patients are treated, which must cram as many as fifty patients at a time.

When told of the recent rocket that struck a Sderot residential neighborhood and sent eight people into shock, the Ambassador asked how PTSD (post traumatic stress disorder) victims could be treated in an environment where there was no post to the rocket attacks.

"It is a big problem and a question that we have yet to answer," responded Dr. Katz. "Following the recent rocket attack in May, there have been over 60 new requests for treatment at the Sderot Mental Health Center." Dr. Katz, who also directs the Sderot Mental Health Center, said that out of the 6,000 patient files, over half involve post trauma cases.

"The closing of the shock center will mean that Sderot shock victims will have to be transported 20 minutes away to Ashkelon’s Barzilai, which was the standard procedure before the Sderot center was opened three years ago," Dr. Katz added.


At the Sderot Trauma Center, Ambassador Phillips met with the director, Dalia Yosef, who explained that the trauma center, also known as the Merkaz Hosen is the only facility in Sderot which offers treatment for children. "We have 1,000 patient files, and over 80 percent of our cases our children suffering from symptoms of PTSD. Eight years of Qassam rocket fire has produced a generation of ‘Qassam children’ who have no concept of normal life," said Yosef.

"We try to offer Sderot children and their parents the tools needed to deal with stress and shock." "Only this week, I had a mother break down, when she told me that the new bomb shelter in her home was complete. Although most Sderot parents have been reassured by the new bomb shelters, it was an unpleasant reality check for this particular mom. "




Yosef has a staff of 18 psychologists and social workers, all of whom she will be forced to fire once the funding for center runs out at the end of the year. Yosef explained that 50 percent of the center’s funding comes from NGOs, while Knesset ministries provide the other half.

"Until recently, The International Fellowship of Christians and Jews had provided 50 percent of the funding to the trauma and shock center. Now the organization can no longer provide that funding," said Yosef.

Sderot Media Center has been pressuring Knesset members to secure further funding for the trauma facilities, alongside Dr. Katz and Dalia Yosef. Out of the NIS 6 million needed to keep five trauma centers in Sderot and the western Negev open, the Knesset has thus far provided NIS 1.5 million which will keep the centers going until December.

Ambassador Phillips, noticeably moved by his visit, stated to Yosef that he was impressed with the dedication that she and other Sderot psychologists have shown to the community even under the intensity of the rocket attacks. Later the Ambassador spoke at Sapir College outside of Sderot, where he stated to students:
"I am conscious that I stand here today to meet with you students, just a few kilometres from the Gaza Strip, just a few kilometres from where Gilad Shalit was kidnapped almost three years ago. Thousands of rockets and mortars have rained down on Sderot and the surrounding areas since 2001, taking innocent lives and causing thousands of Israelis to live daily with fear, panic and dread."



The Ambassador’s visit to Sderot was spurred by a letter correspondence with SMC’s Anav Silverman. Silverman had written a letter to European Union ambassadors, pointing out that although the EU nations had graciously allocated funds for Palestinians who suffered the humanitarian consequences in the Gaza war, those living on the Israeli side and impacted by the war had received nothing. Silverman pointed out that both sides of the border deserved humanitarian aid.

Three embassies including Spain, the Netherlands and Britain responded to the letter, with the British Embassy following up in an on-site visit to Sderot. British Ambassador Phillips indicated at the end of the visit that he would bring the Sderot trauma facilities funding crisis to the attention of relevant international NGOs coordinating humanitarian aid.

The letter sent by Anav, to the EU-

To read Anav Silverman's letter to the European Union member countries: click here:
http://sderotmedia.org.il/bin/content.cgi?ID=428&q=3

To read the British Embassy's coverage of Ambassador Phillips' visit to Sderot, click here:
http://ukinisrael.fco.gov.uk/en/newsroom/?view=PressR&id=18889861

Knesset Ministers Respond to SMC's Call to Fund Trauma Centers

#sderot media center, #Israeli knesset members, #trauma centers, #knesset ministers,




By; Anav Silverman
Sderot Media Center
www.SderotMedia.com

SMC's Noam Bedein corresponds with Knesset ministers to alleviate financial crisis for Sderot trauma facilities

In light of the closing of the Sderot trauma facilities, SMC has called on Israeli Knesset ministries to step up funding or find a financial solution that will enable trauma services to continue operating in Sderot.

Sderot Media Center director, Noam Bedein, notified members of Knesset, who he had been in touch with previously in regard to the Israeli Tax Authority's treatment of Sderot residents' whose homes and properties were damaged in rocket attacks. Read more.

Members of Knesset, Dr. Marina Solodkin, Deputy Health Minister, Minister of Social Welfare Services, Yitzchak Hertzog, MK Ori Orbach, and MK Uri Ariel all responded to Sderot Media Center's notification. The four Knesset members contacted Deputy Health Minister, Rabbi Yakov Litzman to personally ask him what actions the Ministry of Health was taking to prevent the closures of the trauma facilities.

Minister of Social Welfare, Yitzchak Hertzog personally sent a letter to Mr. Bedein, highlighting the actions and meetings that are to stop the collapse of the Sderot treatment therapy centers.

The following is an excerpt from the Minister Hertzog's letter (May 21, 2009):

"There is no doubt that the trauma centers proved their effectiveness during Operation cast Lead. Therefore the Government of Israel must take it up on herself to continue to fund these centers. The Ministry of Social Welfare Services, the office of the Prime Minister, and the Health Ministry are taking every possible measures to maintain the operations of the centers.


In addition, the director of the Social Welfare Office, Mr. Nahum Itzkovitch has decided to initiate an immediate meeting, which representatives from the Office of the Prime Minister and the director of the Healthy Ministry will be part of, in order to find a solution to this critical problem."

The Sderot Trauma Center also known as Merkaz Hosen had its budget cut down by 50% when the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews notified the facility that it could no longer provide funding to the center. The other half of the center's funding-- provided by the Israeli government-is not nearly enough to keep the center open.

The Shock Treatment Center, which also runs under the Sderot Trauma Center is also on the verge of closing because of budget cuts. The Shock Treatment Center, which provides immediate treatment to Sderot victims of rocket terror, is vital to the Sderot community.

Sderot Media Center is awaiting an invitation to the meeting.

Sderot residents left to battle rockets and PTSD alone

#Sderot, #Mental health center, #PTSD, #Qassam rockets, #Trauma center, #shock center, #Gaza, #Hamas, #Sderot Media Center

By; Anav Silverman
Sderot Media Center
http://www.sderotmedia.com/

Sderot trauma facilities in danger of closing due to budget cuts.

Imagine that you are 18-years-old. You have just completed high school and in a few months you will enter the army. In the meantime, you spend your time going out with friends and working to save some money-- like any other typical teenager in Israel.

One afternoon, you come home exhausted from work and collapse into bed for a nap. Suddenly, in the middle of your nap you find yourself waking up to the sound of your window exploding above your bed. Shards of glass lie everywhere. It takes you a moment to realize that a rocket has slammed a few feet away from your home.
Welcome to a moment in the life of Ilan Dahan, a Sderot 18-year-old who slept through the Color Red siren-- only to wake up to a Gaza rocket exploding in his backyard last Tuesday evening, May 19.
“It’s a miracle that all I got was this scratch,” Ilan says, dazedly pointing to a red mark on his back, where a piece of glass cut through.
Ilan’s family stands around in shock. His mother Shula looks at her son tearfully. “I never expected this to happen to us during the ceasefire,” she says.

The back of the Dahan’s home is covered in debris and glass, while rocket shrapnel marks the walls and ceiling of the home. An evening breeze blows through the windowless windows. Ilan’s father, Avi, stands by his son. “I was terrified that something had happened to him,” Avi says in a quiet voice.
Now imagine that after such a rocket attack, the kind of therapy needed to get shock victims back on track, is no longer available. Due to significant budget cuts, trauma therapy facilities in Sderot, which have played a valuable role in rehabilitating residents of the rocket-torn community, are now in danger of closing down.

Those who will be affected most by this recent development are Sderot‘s children, as the Sderot Trauma Center, which caters mostly to Sderot children and teenagers - ages 17 and below - is on its way out.
Fifty percent of the center’s funding comes from the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews, or Keren LeYedidut. The organization can no longer provide the funds to keep the center going.



The trauma center treats 620 trauma patients, of whom 80% are children, says Daliah Yosef, the trauma center’s director.



“I’ve already handed out dismissal letters to the staff at the center,” Yosef told Sderot Media Center last Thursday, May 21 two days after the rocket attack.
The other 50% of the trauma center‘s funding is provided by the Israeli Government Ministries of Health, Revenue, and Seniors - not nearly enough to keep the center open.
“The harshest part of this reality is that hundreds of Sderot children will be left with no place to go for treatment,” says Yosef.

Ilan is fortunate that he is 18 and can therefore receive treatment at the Sderot Mental Health Center, which ministers to adult victims from ages 18 and up. However, Sderot's Mental Health Center’s director, Dr. Adrianna Katz, says that although her center is in no danger of closing, she does not have enough staff to deal with over 6,000 trauma victim files --which continue to grow every day. In fact, since the recent rocket attack on Sderot, over 60 people from the residential neighborhood where the rocket landed, have sought treatment at the Sderot Mental Health Center.

In addition to Yosef’s Trauma Center, the Sderot Shock Treatment Center which operates under the trauma center, is also in danger of shutting down.
Photo: Anav SilvermanThe Shock Treatment Center opened three years ago, alongside the trauma center, to provide immediate treatment to shock victims after rocket attacks. Before then, Sderot residents had to be transported 20 minutes away to Ashkelon’s Barzilai Hospital or to Be’er Sheva’s Soroka Hospital.

“When the Shock Treatment Center opened in Sderot, it made treatment for Sderot residents much more efficient and easier, as they received help on the spot” said Dr. Katz, who also heads the shock center. “Sderot residents feel more at home being treated at the center.”
“Going back to the original way--transporting Sderot trauma victims by ambulance to hospitals outside the area is absolutely ridiculous,” Dr. Katz told Sderot Media Center. “The cost of transporting patients is more expensive and many times there are not enough ambulances to transport all victims, especially during episodes when there are a series of rocket attacks on the city.”

Indeed in the recent rocket attack, the Sderot Shock Treatment Center treated all eight victims of shock including a woman injured by rocket shrapnel.
Sderot’s trauma facilities remain a vital part of the Sderot community, which for eight years has been under Gaza rocket attack. As the city’s residents continue to live under the range of Qassam fire, it is the therapy and care that Dr. Katz and Dalia Yosef provide which helps residents return to a semblance of normal life.
In the meantime, Ilan Dahan continues to hope that someday he can wake up to a rocket-free sky.

The Significance of Memory in Israel: Sderot Remembers its Qassam Victims

#Sderot Qassam victims, #Israel rememberance day, # #Collective Memory, #Jewish History, #Gaza, #Iran,


By; Noam Bedein
Director
Sderot media Center
http://www.sderotmedia.com/

"Today we are in the midst of the third cease fire in the last two years. During each of these periods, hundreds of rockets have been fired towards Israel. Iran has become part of the equation in the Gaza-Sderot conflict and is very close to home - right in Sderot’s back yard. When we do not remember, our consciousness is the recipient of the routine reality, a routine that provides legitimization for terror, and raises the question of our basic right to live as Jews and Israelis freely in our country."

The 10 Sderot victims of the Qassam rocket attacks have become insignificant statistics when comparing the numbers of those killed in Gaza. Oshry Oz, Shirel Friedman, Afik Ochaion-Zehavi, Yosifov Michael, Kas’houn Yuval, Binsah Dorit-Gento, Ella Abukasis, Yaakov Yaakobov, Fa’ina Slozker, and Roni Yechiye, were all killed in the past eight years by indiscriminate rockets launched from Gaza. Here in Sderot, these people are not forgotten.



The eve of Israel’s Memorial Day 2009, as opposed to previous years, is deeply significant to the unique character of this nation’s collective memory. In a remembrance ceremony that took place in Sderot in marking those who fell in the various battles in Israel and those killed in terrorist acts including Qassam attacks, one can understand the importance of memorials. Sderot resident, Chanan Yaakobov, a mature 15 year old, spoke in the ceremony of his father who was killed by a Qassam rocket that exploded in a chicken factory just one week before the first cease fire in November 2006.



“I barely remember you...” Chanan says of his father to the audience. “Days have gone by and I am growing up without a father, I barely remember what you look like, and it is only the photographs that remind me of my childhood with my father, and that is why we have a memorial day in order to remember, and not to forget...”



The children of Sderot understand the importance of memories and their special significance. In the Memorial Day ceremony that took place in the Alon Science School, the children asked in their naiveté, “Is the siren that will be sounded in the city on Memorial Day the same siren as the red alert?” How can one expect a nine year old child that is born into the reality of rocket fire and doesn’t know any other reality to understand that the siren for Israel‘s Memorial Day is different from the Color Red siren warning of rocket attacks.



There was an exemplary silence during the Memorial Day siren- the children stood at steadfast attention; no voice was heard; there was no chirping or giggling.
Leora Fima, the school principal, related later on that “the children in first grade today understand that the deaths in Sderot and of those soldiers killed in Israel’s wars emphasize the importance of life in our country in general and life in Sderot in particular.”



The critical significance of the holidays in the past month is the basis of the fundamental collective memory in the various periods of Jewish history: Passover, where we remember the Exodus from Egypt, the Exodus from slavery to freedom; Holocaust day, with the memory of millions of Jews that were killed for merely being Jewish; Memorial Day, for the victims of Israel’s battles, who with their heroism enabled us to go on in the state. In their merit we live today in the state of Israel.



The words “freedom,“ “liberty,“ and “national Jewish and Israeli pride” take on a special meaning here in Sderot, where for over eight years rockets have terrorized a civilian population. In a reality that would be regarded unacceptable in any other part of the world, these words hold great meaning for the residents of Sderot, the western Negev and approximately a million citizens that live in the south of Israel.



The last time that the city of Sderot looked like a city that celebrated Independence Day was during the period of Operation Cast Lead that began on the 27th of December and continued until January 18. The entire city-- every alley, street and neighborhood was decorated with Israeli flags. Except for the fact that the streets were empty, parks dormant, and people remained inside in bomb shelters, it felt that the residents of Sderot were celebrating Independence Day early.



Dr. Adrianna Katz, the director of the Mental Health Center in Sderot, diagnosed hundreds of trauma victims during the battle period in Gaza and assigned a “new” syndrome to Sderot victims of PTSD- “optimistic anxiety”. The optimistic anxiety victims were diagnosed as having no anger. Dr. Katz explained that this was the first time in eight years that the residents of Sderot felt as if they were part of the state of Israel. They were beginning to experienced the feeling of potential independence from eight years of rocket shooting.“There was finally a feeling of euphoria - for the first time the residents saw the light at the end of the tunnel,” said Katz. This feeling continued for three weeks - during the entire time of the battle.



Tonight the State of Israel celebrates 61 years since its founding. Four months have passed since the fighting in Gaza where more than 200 rockets have been shot at Israel; hundreds of tons of ammunition and weapons have been smuggled into Gaza through underground caves; Gilad Shalit has not been released and the legitimization of the Hamas terror has increased worldwide. As a result, the feeling of independence as a national autonomous and legitimate state today carries a question mark.



Our conscious memory of the Sderot and western Negev rocket reality, as Israelis living outside of Sderot, is almost non-existent. Because there is relative “quiet”, with only some individual deaths, we have forgotten the fact that we disengaged from Gaza based on the formula of “land for peace”. Yet, since that day, more than 7000 Qassam rockets have been fired at Israel. At least once a week since the ceasefire, Sderot residents experience the Color Red siren.



Today we are in the midst of the third cease fire in the last two years. During each of these periods, hundreds of rockets have been fired towards Israel. Iran has become part of the equation in the Gaza-Sderot conflict and is very close to home - right in Sderot’s back yard. When we do not remember, our consciousness is the recipient of the routine reality, a routine that provides legitimization for terror, and raises the question of our basic right to live as Jews and Israelis freely in our country.