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October 17, 2008

Fifteen seconds for survival

In Sderot, constant attacks cause psychological damage.
PAT JOHNSON

When the sirens go off, the residents of Sderot have 15 seconds to scatter to the nearest bomb shelter before the rockets aimed at the Israeli border town with the Gaza Strip slam into a neighborhood. In a video distributed by the Sderot Media Centre, kindergarten children practise the well-rehearsed survival technique of fleeing from the playground into a bomb shelter, where they await the inevitable explosion, the sound of which they blot out with singing.

Since he moved to Sderot two years ago, Noam Bedein has experienced 3,000 such rocket attacks. The 26-year-old came to town to study at Sapir College, but his studies have taken a backseat to a life's calling that has turned the young Israeli's life – and the world's understanding of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict – upside down.

Bedein was in Vancouver as part of a North American visit to raise awareness of Sderot and of the Sderot Media Centre, which Bedein single-handedly started and which is now a crucial source of information for international media about the realities of life on the border of the Iran-backed, Hamas-governed Gaza Strip.

"When I got there, there was no public office or governmental office dealing with the human crisis, with what people have to live with on a daily basis," Bedein told the Independent. "Therefore, I established the Sderot Media Centre, which is today the only media advocacy centre in the whole Negev that is dealing with international media and with communities abroad and our purpose is to present and express the human face of Sderot and the western Negev in as creative a way as possible in order to create awareness."

The privately funded Sderot Media Centre is part of what Bedein said is a media war that Israel's enemies are winning. Fighting international apathy and sympathy for the Palestinian cause, Bedein said he is also challenged by the Israeli status quo, in whose interest it is to downplay the sometimes daily attacks on Sderot, because the situation implies that the Gaza pullout, which was implemented by the Israeli government with backing of the international community, has been a failed policy.

"In the past three years, ever since the disengagement, ever since Israel pulled out of the Gaza Strip, almost 7,000 rockets have been launched toward the whole western Negev," Bedein said. "According to the air force commander of Israel, 97 per cent of these Kassam rockets are being fired from among civilian populations in Gaza. Rockets are being fired from behind the homes, behind the residential areas, from behind neighborhoods. So if Israel wants to defend its own citizens by hitting that target in Gaza, civilians are going to get killed. So you've got civilian casualties, you've got the entire media focus on those casualties. When there's more media coverage outside the country, there's more sympathy for the Palestinian cause. When there's more sympathy for the Palestinian cause, this gives the terrorist networks the legitimacy to launch rockets toward Israel."

While the scenes of devastation left by Israel Defence Forces incursions into Gaza are splayed across the world's TV sets, the impact of constant rocket barrages, which have killed 12 Sderot residents, are less effective visually, from a propaganda standpoint.

"Mainly in Sderot, we're dealing with psychological effects," said Bedein. "How do you show psychological effects in the media? That really is the challenge.... How do you express a reality of rockets exploding right next to you? Having 15 seconds to run for your life.

"Once you've experienced a rocket exploding nearby, your life is going to change from that moment. The next time you hear that siren going off, after you experience a rocket exploding nearby, it doesn't matter if a rocket falls in Sderot or outside of Sderot, you're sure the rocket's aiming right for you," he said. "That's the psychological effect."

Bedein has become a photojournalist and, through his lens, the madness of the situation is easily visible.

"When you see a playground and a bomb shelter in one frame, you understand how this reality is completely absurd," he said. "And the question to ask is: What other Western democracy in the entire world would tolerate even one rocket being launched toward its territory?"

Hamas, which is the government of Gaza, as well as other Palestinian terror groups, use Iranian weaponry and explosives, smuggled through Egypt, to terrorize Sderot.

Sderot, with a population of fewer than 20,000, and the entire western Negev, which has 45,000 residents, has been under daily rocket attack through much of the period since the disengagement. While rockets have decreased since a June ceasefire was agreed to by Hamas, the stockpiling of weapons and explosives is increasing over the border. So is the range of the missiles being launched, according to Bedein.

"Today, the range [has] already increased to 250,000 Israelis under threat of rockets. Hamas is already getting the development of missiles coming from Iran to reach all the way up to Ashdod, putting in range half a million Israelis. This is what Hamas is doing."

More than 10,000 rockets are waiting on the other side of the Sderot-Gaza border to be launched when the ceasefire ends, with more than four tons of explosives smuggled into Gaza, said Bedein.

Bedein, who claims his politics are neither right nor left, raises the spectre of a similar onslaught of rockets landing all over Israel if a Palestinian state were to parallel Israel.

"The Gaza-Sderot reality is a live example of what could happen to the entire centre of Israel if you set up a Palestinian state on the borders of 1967," he said. "Nothing to do with politics, this is a reality we all have to take into consideration. To have a solution, you have to understand the problem first of all."

At its root, he said, the conflict is one of intent.

"While we are teaching our children to grow up with peace and hope, the other side are growing up with schoolbooks that literally say there is no room for the Jews in this country, there is no history for the Jews in this country," said Bedein.

Bedein has spoken with European parliamentary members, who believe that the attacks on Israel are legitimate pressure to bring a resolution to Palestinian statelessness, leaving aside the fact that Sderot is in Israel proper and could be interpreted as a "settlement" only by those who seek the end of Israel.

"By making it legitimate, having an excuse, a reasonable reason for rockets being launched toward civilian populations, that is the root of the problem itself," Bedein said of the world's reaction – or lack thereof – to the Sderot crisis. "There is no reason or excuse that could be given for a reality of launching rockets toward a civilian population or to hit civilian population."

As much as it's comfortable and easy to talk about simple options, Bedein contends, a two-state solution is untenable until Palestinians are willing to live in peace.

"According to their Palestinian schoolbooks and maps, the Palestinian state is the entire state of Israel on the borders of 1948," said Bedein.

The full transcript of the Independent's interview with Bedein appears below. The Sderot Media Centre is online at www.sderotmedia.com.

Pat Johnson is, among other things, managing director, programs and communications, for the Vancouver Hillel Foundation.

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Transcript of Jewish Independent interview
with Noam Bedein, director, Sderot Media Centre

BEDEIN: "When I got there, [to Sderot, as a student at Sapir College] there was no public office or governmental office dealing with the human crisis, with what people have to live with on a daily basis. Therefore, I established the Sderot Media Centre, which is today the only media advocacy centre in the whole Negev that is dealing with international media and with communities abroad and our purpose is to present and express the human face of Sderot and the Western Negev in as creative a way as possible in order to create awareness.

"Not many people understand about the media war, how important it is to have media advocacy. The more you express and show what's happening in the southern, western part of Israel, the more hope you're giving to the entire region, by expressing what is really going on.

"[After serving in the Israel Defence Forces], I went travelling to 10 different countries by myself, I went to Tibet to experience Tibetan occupation by China. I went to all the places where the tsunami hit very hard – Indonesia, Thailand and India. I became a photojournalist while travelling, expressing and experiencing these places, being able to look upon myself from a different angle as a Jew, as an Israeli, as a human being, and eventually, I came back to implement whatever I've learned and to put [that] into work in Israel, in Sderot.

"There's a term in the media, 'only when it bleeds, it leads.' Only when there's blood the media takes notice.

"In the past three years, ever since the disengagement, ever since Israel pulled out of the Gaza Strip, almost 7,000 rockets have been launched toward the whole Western Negev. According to the air force commander of Israel, 97 per cent of these Kassam rockets are being fired from among civilian populations in Gaza. Rockets are being fired from behind the homes, behind the residential areas, from behind neighborhoods. So if Israel wants to defend its own citizens by hitting that target in Gaza, by hitting that target in Gaza, civilians are going to get killed. Again, when it bleeds, it leads, so you've got civilian casualties, you've got the entire media focus on those casualties. When there's more media coverage outside the country, there's more sympathy for the Palestinian cause. When there's more sympathy for the Palestinian cause, this gives the terrorist networks the legitimacy to launch rockets toward Israel.

"Mainly in Sderot, we're dealing with psychological effects. How do you show psychological effects in the media? That really is the challenge. When I moved to Sderot, I went around for a month and a half to get a formal and professional understanding about this rocket reality and I remember I arrived at the security officer's office and I see on the wall a map of Sderot with dots indicating where these rockets have fallen. The security officer was telling me that four years ago he stopped [putting] dots on this map because he won't notice there's a map of Sderot. It's basically understanding that every single road, every single street, every single family and every single child has experienced a rocket exploding nearby. That is the challenge: how to express that impact? How do you express a reality of rockets exploding right next to you? Having 15 seconds to run for your life?

"The northern part of Gaza is less than one kilometre away from Sderot, meaning once the rocket has been launched, you have 15 seconds to run for your life. What goes through your mind almost every single day when you leave your doorstep is when and where the siren's going to go off, where is it going to catch you, if you'll have enough time to run for shelter and where the rocket's going to explode. Once you've experienced a rocket exploding nearby, your life is going to change from that moment. The next time you hear that siren going off, after you experience a rocket exploding nearby, it doesn't matter if a rocket falls in Sderot or outside of Sderot, you're sure the rocket's aiming right for you. That's the psychological effect.

"If you're driving to Sderot ... putting down your window, turning off the music, taking off your seatbelt because you always have to be alert to jump out of the car. It's seeing bomb shelters scattered next to the central bus station, next to the marketplace, next to the high schools. When you see a playground and a bomb shelter in one frame, you understand how this reality is completely absurd. And the question to ask is what other Western democracy in the entire world would tolerate even one rocket being launched toward its territory? According to all human rights organizations, any terror militia that uses their own neighborhood civilians as their human shield, that is considered a war crime.

"It's hard to express this reality, especially in the Western world, it's very hard for the Western mind to visualize a terrorist literally taking a child in front of him and becoming a human shield. It's hard to understand. It's hard to comprehend in their mind, but the fact is 97 per cent of rockets are being literally fired from among the civilian population, knowing that once civilians are going to get killed, there's going to be media coverage, that's how it works.

"We literally have Iran at our back doors. The missiles, equipment, terrorists and money [are] coming directly from Iran shipped through the Mediterranean Sea, directly to Egypt, through the Philadelphia border – that's the border between Egypt and Gaza – directly into Gaza.

"Sderot has a population of less than 20,000 and the entire Western Negev has 45,000. Today, the range [of rocket fire] already increased to 250,000 Israelis under threat of rockets. Hamas is already getting the development of missiles coming from Iran to reach all the way up to Ashdod, putting in range half a million Israelis. This is what Hamas is doing.

"This is the only place in the entire Western world where rockets and missiles are being fired toward civilian populations and where it hits civilian populations. The problem is this reality is going on and on and the fact [is] that [because] it's not being covered in a better way, there's no international outcry over what is happening. People should understand that the more coverage Sderot and the Western Negev get, the more hope ... Sderot residents get. The fact is, Sderot is, according to international law and Israeli law, Sderot is Israel. This is nothing to do with the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. This is Israel being under attack.

"While it's very comfortable for the Western world to talk about the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, and two-state solutions, what they're calling settlements and what we're calling settlements is completely different. According to them, [Sderot] is a settlement.

"The Gaza-Sderot reality is a live example of what could happen to the entire centre of Israel if you set up a Palestinian state on the borders of 1967. Nothing to do with politics, this is a reality we all have to take into consideration. To have a solution, you have to understand the problem first of all.

"These Kassam rockets have two purposes: to kill and to traumatize as many civilians as possible. On the other hand, when Israel has to pinpoint the targets themselves, civilians are going to get injured or killed on the other side because these targets are amongst civilian population and that's what we're dealing with. There is no Western democracy in the world that would tolerate one rocket being launched toward its territory; that is a fact.

"To live in a rocket reality ... what does it mean when you've got 15 seconds to run for your life? Imagine hearing the siren adom, the color red siren going off, expected to run through the corridors with 80 other students or children hoping to reach a secured room in less than 15 seconds.

"It's a bit absurd, living in Sderot. Fighting to put bomb shelters and secure more classrooms when protection is not even a solution to this crazy reality.

"Right now, it's been relatively quiet. A ceasefire took place on the 19th of June between Hamas and Israel. That was three months ago, we're talking about over 35 rockets have been launched towards Israel, over 10,000 rockets are waiting on the other side just to be launched [at] the right time, over four tons of ammunition explosives have been smuggled into Gaza, this was a report last month. Basically, the next conflict, the next battlefield is going to be Gaza-Sderot. The other side is very much prepared already for their PR.

"Let me explain how this works. From the 29th of February to the third of March, there were five days of escalation having 355 rockets, missiles or mortars being fired toward Israel. Israel enters into a massive operation into the northern part of Gaza, killing 130 Palestinian Arabs. Most of them were terrorists, the rest were women and children being used as human shields. They then launch their media campaigns, their PR, getting their dead children and women out to the mainstream Arab, Muslim media and international media. When that is exposed, that puts pressure on Israel to restrain. That's the way it works. So when you see, on the front page of the New York Times, dead children from Gaza, it's natural that you just get [the message] 'it's pretty obvious who's the aggressor in this conflict.' And that is the main issue: that the other side knows how to work with the media, investing millions of dollars getting their story out and the more they're able to get more coverage for their story, they're able to keep on launching rockets like no other place in the entire world.

"Our challenge is to balance the media coverage. The more balanced the media coverage, through different media elements, not only through CNN or BBC, but ... through documentary short films, photo exhibits, art exhibits, theatre productions. We sent, last summer, 19 children from Sderot to perform in a community theatre, telling their private stories through the arts of the theatre, telling their daily routine and what they had to live through in front of a live audience. That's part of our purpose. You cannot get to a solution without understanding the problem – awareness.

"If you ask a random person about Israel and the conflict, they will know something. And when you show them a map of the world asking 'do you know where Israel is in the map of the world,' and Israel is this tiny, tiny little dot. The [tiny dot on the] map of the world has been getting so much attention in the international media, the fact [is] that every single step that Israel does is looked upon with a magnifying glass, with every single step that it does, Israel is pressured by the American State Department, by the UN, by the international media....

"When Bush came down to Israel this past January, to promote the two-state solution, the Annapolis peace process, we hosted Steven Erlanger, the bureau chief of the New York Times, he came down to Sderot, because Sderot and Gaza is not mentioned in the Annapolis peace process, when this rocket reality is a live example of what would happen with the entire centre of Israel beside a Palestinian state.

"The more you're expressing Sderot, the more it's embarrassing the American state department and the Israeli government, showing how the disengagement from Gaza, the pullout from Gaza was complete mistake. Nothing to do with politics.

"I'm here as a simple person. I'm not here to give you the solutions I'm here to give you the problem. The problem is that we are not talking about what [are] our rights as Jews, as Israelis, in this country and in this home land. The fact that Israel was established in 1948 and here were places and territories that were conquered by Israel, the fact is these are the places that they actually want to go back to. The right of return is not talking about the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, it's talking about the entire land of Israel, and the war was in 1948.

"While we are teaching our children to grow up with peace and hope, the other side are growing up with schoolbooks that literally say there is no room for the Jews in this country, there is no history for the Jews in this country. I do not see myself [as ideological] ... not right and not left. Bt these are the facts that people have to deal with and it's not until we deal with these problems, with these issues, we can go on to the next set, and a solution.

"When Arafat died, he had between four to seven billion dollars in his bank account. Gaza Strip got, altogether in the past 10 years, over $5.5 billion in the entire Palestinian Authority.

"So it's very easy to choose one side when you see there's a humanitarian crisis, when Gaza's sealed down. The PR campaigns coming out when there's an increase with rockets ... this is the worst humanitarian crisis since 1967, the biggest ghetto in the world. When people are not talking about the real facts that are happening across that issue. So it's quite a challenge just to express what is happening, because how do you show psychological effects in the media?

"Second of all, you have to be a private organization, when you've got no strings attached and your hands are not tied behind your back to express what's going on. That's part of the challenge to get that story out.

"The rockets have increased, tripled, the amount of rockets. The distance – if before, it was only Sderot, the western Negev and the Jewish communities inside Gaza being under attack, today it's all the way up to the northern part of Ashkelon, putting in the range over 250,000 Israelis. After the pullout from Gaza, there was a democratic election, electing Hamas government, which is calling out loud and proudly for a genocide.

[Note: Bedein says he has spoken to European members of parliament and others who view anti-Israel violence as manifestations of Palestinians' legitimate demands for self-determination....]

"These are the reasons and excuses that have been given, not only by the Palestinians, but by many other elements to give a reason for this rocket reality. This is just from the experience of going around speaking to parliament members around Europe. By making it legitimate, having an excuse, a reasonable reason for rockets being launched toward civilian populations, that is the root of the problem itself. There is no reason or excuse that could be given for a reality of launching rockets toward a civilian population or to hit civilian population.

"My experience in moving to Sderot two years ago was waking up almost every single morning with a collective alarm clock. You would have a siren going off, followed by an explosion into the town from six o'clock to eight o'clock in the morning. Think: these are the times that children are on their way to kindergartens, to schools, parents on the way to work and to shop. Those are the times that you would have a direct hit into Sderot itself.

"As much as it's comfortable and easy to talk about easy solutions, West Bank, two-state solution, without understanding that Sderot is, again, Israel. And according to their Palestinian schoolbooks and maps, the Palestinian state is the entire state of Israel on the borders of 1948. These are the questions people have to ask themselves.

"In North America, it became so popular today to become anti-Israel, anti-Zionist, the anti-Semitism is rising – my first experience was actually here in Canada – experiencing activists demonstrating against me just because I'm an Israeli. I was in Trent University. That was pretty shocking to me.

"We are able to express Sderot through all elements of media to over 400 million people around the globe, if it's bringing the biggest newspapers down to Sderot, if it's the Times magazine of London, the L.A. Times, the Boston Globe, we had the Euronews broadcast – their broadcasts have 200 million [listeners] – they did an eight-minute documentary of how it is to live in a rocket reality. I took them around to different families. Seeing how families live in their living room, together with two parents and five children. They have a beautiful house, but they cannot live in the second floor because they wouldn't have enough time to run downstairs in 15 seconds.

"They made an eight-minute documentary that was broadcast to 159 countries in seven languages three times a day. Two hundred million people were exposed to Sderot. When you're expressing Sderot, you're presenting Israel's point-of-view in the conflict."

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