The Gaza Envelope communities are the ultimate symbol of Israel’s struggle to pursue a normal life and to create and maintain thriving communities despite the unceasing war on its borders. Members of the JNF Canada delegation, which includes some of the organization’s leadership and professional staff, spent a day visiting communities on the Gaza Border.Sderot Mayor Alon Davidi welcomed the delegates at the municipal emergency center. “I’m delighted to meet a group of Zionists eager to take significant action,” he told his guests before relating how, just two weeks earlier, around fifty missiles had been fired at Sderot. “Imagine your family, your
community and your city experiencing repeated warfare under conditions that are constantly changing,” he said.
To allow his visitors a taste of the impossible situation that Sderot residents have to cope with, Davidi gave them twenty seconds to reach the fortified room; most of them didn’t make it in time.
Nonetheless, despite all the difficulties, Davidi said: “We have a good life here, with beautiful parks and a wonderful education system. Sderot is 95% paradise and 5% hell. We believe in life and growth, and despite the situation Sderot continues to grow and develop.”
John Baird Park: Games and portable bomb shelters
The delegates crossed the road and made their way to
John Baird Park, several dozen meters away from the emergency center. This park, which was established with the support of
JNF Canada, is an excellent example of the local desire to maintain the routines of ordinary life between one rocket salvo and the next.
This green, well-tended space includes a whole range of playground equipment for the local children to enjoy, alongside exercise equipment and shading seating areas for the benefit of their parents. Apart from seesaws, slides and different types of climbing frames, there is also a water fountain where youngsters can paddle and splash.
Watching the children as they play in the park, the observer can scarcely believe that the border with the Gaza Strip is barely two kilometers away. The colorful portable bomb shelters scattered around the park are the only visible reminder that the tranquility of Sderot is deceptive, and that at any moment a Red Alert warning could send everyone scuttling for shelter.
The Canadian delegates inaugurated the park at a formal ceremony.
“This wonderful park has made Sderot a more attractive city,” declared KKL-JNF Chief of Protocol
Andy Michelson at the start of his speech.
Alon Davidi told his listeners that the idea of establishing a park in this particular spot was born when a Qassam rocket landed not far from the site. “I said to myself that if they’re firing missiles, then we’ll do something good. This park, which is right in the heart of the city, brings together children from different backgrounds,” he explained.
John Baird, for whom the park is named, was Canada’s minister of foreign affairs from 2011 until 2015, and is a great friend of Israel. The Vancouver Negev Dinner of 2015 was held in his honor.
“We realized that Sderot residents needed a park like this, and we wanted to dedicate it also to sixty-six soldiers who fell in
Operation Protective Edge,” explained
Ilan Pilo, KKL-JNF emissary to Vancouver. The Vancouver community effort was joined by a number of other Canadian communities, and together they transformed the vision of the park into reality.
“This park is close to the hearts of us all, and we have every reason to be proud of what we accomplish together,” said
Lance Davis, CEO of JNF Canada.
The Treatment Center: “The rabbit’s really scared”
The delegates then made their way to a center that uses animal-assisted therapy to treat children. Architects Eran Koloditsky and Efrat Shavit presented their plans for the construction of a new treatment center with the support of JNF USA and JNF Canada.
The center’s director Hagar Shnell described its activities and importance:
“Children suffering from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) who have trouble showing their feelings sometimes find it easier to express themselves through animals. Instead of admitting ‘I’m frightened when the alert sounds,’ they’ll prefer to say ‘the rabbit’s really scared.’ Our current center is small and cramped, and the new place will enable us to provide better service for larger numbers of children.”
“Every visit to the area binds me more closely to the place and the people,” said JNF Calgary Director Sandra Fayerman. “We’ll tell our friends in Canada some of the stories we’ve heard here.”
The Black Arrow Memorial: “The situation can change in seconds”
The delegates then paid a visit to the
Black Arrow Memorial, which commemorates the heroism of the Paratroop Brigade during the reprisal operations of the 1950s in this region. Along the way they stopped to enjoy the view over the Nir Am
Reservoir and listened to a description of KKL-JNF’s work on water-resource development.
Apart from being a memorial, the
Black Arrow site also offers an excellent view across the border, and the delegates had no trouble making out the buildings in the Gaza Strip. This brought home to them how very close residents of Israel’s border communities are to their neighbors on the other side.
Eshkol Regional Council Security Officer
Ilan Isaacson gave a review of the current security situation. His listeners, the delegates, sat 500 meters from the border, just a few meters from the spot where, less than two weeks earlier, Hamas had hit an IDF bus with an anti-tank missile, seriously injuring one of the soldiers.
“The situation in this area can change within seconds,” Isaacson told those sitting comfortably around him in an attractive shady corner, enjoying the sunny weather and the green landscape.
Amihai Lazar of KKL-JNF’s Planning Division displayed plans for the development of the Black Arrow site, which include organized access for pedestrians and vehicles. Afterwards the delegates sat down to a picnic in the shade of the trees, with soldiers and visitors from Israel and abroad all around them.
KKL-JNF Western Negev Regional Director
Danny Ben-David presented a number of new projects that KKL-JNF is promoting in the region. Regarding the planned development of the Black Arrow site he said: “Soldiers and military officials come here, so do schoolchildren and a great many tourists, and it’s high time for an upgrade.”
He described an additional plan for the construction of a tall lookout tower in Kissufim Forest and the further development of the
forest itself, including tree-planting,
footpaths and an assembly point. This is a spot where residents evacuated from Gush Katif tend to congregate, and a tower would enable them to gaze nostalgically towards the site of the communities they were forced to abandon.
A playground is planned for Shokeda Forest, in an area especially famous for its flowering anemones.
“People hear about our area mainly when we’re being fired at from the other side of the border,” said Ben-David. “So, whenever we can enjoy the flowers and attract large numbers of visitors, we have to take advantage of the opportunity to do so. The playground will also give children from this area a chance to meet up with youngsters from other parts of the country.”
Beeri Forest: “Ten years of rehabilitation”
The day concluded with a tour of
Beeri Forest with Danny Ben-David, who told the visitors about the struggle to combat wildfires during the period of
incendiary kite and balloon arson from over the Gaza border.
“Dozens of kites and balloons landed here every day and caused a great many fires in the woodlands, the nature reserves and the farmers’ fields,” he explained. “Firefighters from KKL-JNF and all the other organizations collaborated to fight the flames.”
About half the woodlands in the area went up in smoke during those months.
“It’s going to take a lot of years to rehabilitate the forests and restore the situation to what it was before,” he said. “We’ll be doing rehabilitation work here throughout the coming decade.”
“This is the first time I’ve visited anywhere so close to the Gaza border,” said
Jack Malkin, president of JNF London in the province of Ontario. “I’ve always known how hard it was for the border communities to cope, but when you actually visit here, when you see the places and meet the people, it all becomes much more tangible.”