OPINION: Why I stay in Sderot, a town racked with PTSD
By David Bouskila, former mayor of Sderot
Fifteen seconds is the difference between life and death in Sderot in the Negev desert. Fifteen seconds makes all the difference in the middle of the night when the sirens go off and your four children are sleeping close by.
You have 15 seconds to wake, grab your children and get them to shelter. If you can’t get to your children in time, do you leave them?
Are you meant to choose between your children? Can any parent be expected to make that choice?
Every time a motorbike goes past or a car backfires, everyone in Sderot jumps; we are a town constantly on the edge suffering from PTSD.
This is understandable – in the past 14 years we have had more than 8,000 missiles fired at us. Why do I stay? Why do I encourage my children to stay with their families?
It is because this is our home; this is the place in which I grew up and this is the place in which one day I want to live in peace. It is the children I worry about most. Some think that living with the constant threat of missiles is perfectly normal, that going to a school that is a bomb shelter is just part of their life’s routine.
Organisations such as JNF UK are helping with many projects to ease the children from this conflict’s reality. They have funded various initiatives for the children, including playgrounds, a skate park and community parks, all of which have shelters that are within the required 15-second radius.
This helps improve our quality of life. We are grateful that the diaspora supports us through these difficult times and through calmer times. We are all drained, our children are anxious, the only thing that helps us is our unshattered hope and knowledge that our people are supporting us and doing everything they can to protect us.
Thank you for helping to make Jewish News the leading source of news and opinion for the UK Jewish community. Today we're asking for your invaluable help to continue putting our community first in everything we do.
For as little as £5 a month you can help sustain the vital work we do in celebrating and standing up for Jewish life in Britain.
Jewish News holds our community together and keeps us connected. Like a synagogue, it’s where people turn to feel part of something bigger. It also proudly shows the rest of Britain the vibrancy and rich culture of modern Jewish life.
You can make a quick and easy one-off or monthly contribution of £5, £10, £20 or any other sum you’re comfortable with.
100% of your donation will help us continue celebrating our community, in all its dynamic diversity...
Engaging
Being a community platform means so much more than producing a newspaper and website. One of our proudest roles is media partnering with our invaluable charities to amplify the outstanding work they do to help us all.
Celebrating
There’s no shortage of oys in the world but Jewish News takes every opportunity to celebrate the joys too, through projects like Night of Heroes, 40 Under 40 and other compelling countdowns that make the community kvell with pride.
Pioneering
In the first collaboration between media outlets from different faiths, Jewish News worked with British Muslim TV and Church Times to produce a list of young activists leading the way on interfaith understanding.
Campaigning
Royal Mail issued a stamp honouring Holocaust hero Sir Nicholas Winton after a Jewish News campaign attracted more than 100,000 backers. Jewish Newsalso produces special editions of the paper highlighting pressing issues including mental health and Holocaust remembrance.
Easy access
In an age when news is readily accessible, Jewish News provides high-quality content free online and offline, removing any financial barriers to connecting people.
Voice of our community to wider society
The Jewish News team regularly appears on TV, radio and on the pages of the national press to comment on stories about the Jewish community. Easy access to the paper on the streets of London also means Jewish News provides an invaluable window into the community for the country at large.
We hope you agree all this is worth preserving.
