War Diary from Southern Israel

January 15, 2009 / 19 Tevet 5769

My friends, you come from around the world in solidarity to strengthen us. Today, I want to give you the ability to stand strong in the face of the growing animosity we see around the world.

"I will be joining a UJC Mission to Israel: We will be going to Sderot on Monday, January 19. I will call you when I arrive." So writes my good friend Jon from New Jersey in the first e-mail I opened this morning. This got me to thinking and I want to share what's on my mind.

I am not a politician. I am a simple man who lives on the Gaza border. I cannot influence major state, military or diplomatic decisions. But I watch television and read the international news. I see the demonstrations against us because of our activities in Gaza. But what is not shown is that we are a land, a country, a people who want to live here and raise our children. We want to wake up every morning and know that we can live in peace.

Today, I returned to my MA studies in public management at Sapir College. Sapir has been closed since before the Chanukah vacation, as it is close to the Gaza border. As I walked on campus I saw something incredible: four green tractors sowing potatoes, while a few feet away green tanks and military jeeps were waiting to bring soldiers to battle.  And I thought, we are not a people of war.

Me with another innocent person whose house was destroyed.

Let people know that there are four agricultural municipalities bordering Gaza. 40,000 people live here. We want to farm, to cultivate the land, to love life. But for the past eight years we cannot send our children to school, we can't gather for community events, we cannot live normally. We have been forced to go out to fight for the right to live normal lives.

Does anyone know that over the past three weeks over 1,500 rockets, grad missiles and mortar shells have slammed into Israel? People have been killed and injured. Houses ruined. I have put pictures here to show you how innocent people who just want to live their lives have seen everything they have destroyed.  

And another...

And another.

From the other side, I can understand there is also loss. But don't forget that three years ago we evacuated from Gaza. We were trying, by this action, to bring a solution to this area. And instead, they dug tunnels and smuggled weapons and ammunition.

In the last few days you see how our leaders from different parties are working together for a common cause. This gives me the energy to believe that we, the Jewish people from all over the world, can work together for peace and to rebuild our shattered region. Because alone, it will be very difficult.

I invite all of our friends to choose any way that you can to support us and in turn, the entire Jewish people.

Ofer Baram is Jewish Agency Director of Community Relations, Israel Southern Region.

Photo Credit: Maariv newspaper

January 14, 2009 / 18 Tevet 5769

Monday, a large Keren Hayesod solidarity mission from France visited the region. Eighty-year-old David Fahima, who comes from an upper-class Moroccan Jewish family and whose house in Sderot was destroyed by a missile, conversed with the mission delegates in fluent French and touched them deeply.

David Fahima gives Laurence Bolot, head of KH's French women's division, a special present.

I wanted to bring the Keren Hayesod solidarity mission to meet David Fahima and his wife in their home. Their house, as I wrote in previous blogs, was destroyed by a Kassam rocket but they were unharmed. However, the head of security wouldn't let me bring the mission to Sderot, as they were on high alert. The only safe place was the underground command and control room, where we were to meet Sderot Mayor David Buskila.

So I decided to bring the Fahima's to the group in the underground room. David Fahima was born in Morocco to a very established family. When his family came to Israel they had to leave all of their wealth behind. But David was very well educated and speaks fluent French. When he met the mission members from France, some with Moroccon origins, he was really moved. There was a lively and moving conversation which brought David to tears. He then left and I thought he went home.

But as the mission members were getting ready to leave, David went up to the head of the women's division, Laurence Borot, and presented her with a beautiful religious book. I am not sure what the book was but it meant a lot to both David and Laurence.

Mission members meet IDF soldiers at the Gaza security fence.

After we left Sderot, I took the mission to the Gaza security fence. Here they saw the fighting up close, and they met with some of the soldiers in this closed military zone.

Members of the Jewish Agency's worker's union buy gifts for absorption center children in Sderot.

We had a visit yesterday from representatives of the Jewish Agency's workers union. They came to Sderot, bought lots of presents and games from a local store and distributed them to the absorption centers in Ashdod and Ashkelon and to the students at IBIM. They also met with Jewish Agency personnel, me included, to lift our spirits and to praise us for our dedicated work under fire.

In the evening, the Jewish Agency brought 300 youth from all of the Gaza perimeter communities to see a basketball game between the Israeli team B'nei Hasharon and a team from Greece. The tickets were given free of charge, and this was arranged by Chairman Zeev Bielski, who is the former Mayor of Ra'anana, B'nei Hasharon's home court.

Ofer Baram is Jewish Agency Director of Community Relations, Israel Southern Region.

Photo Credit: Ofer Baram and Ohad Drori 

January 12, 2009 / 16 Tevet 5769

Yesterday two rocket bombs exploded 300 feet from my house on the Kibbutz. They destroyed two cars and damaged one of the caravans where Idit Ashur, administrative assistance of Partnership 2000 Sderot-Sha'ar HaNegev-Eshkol used to live. She moved two months ago.

Yesterday, Chairman of the Jewish Agency Zeev Bielski and Board of Governors member and President of the European Jewish Congress Pierre Besnainou came to tour the region. It was a visit they will most likely never forget.

Board of Governors member and President of the European Jewish Congress Pierre
Besnainou (left) and Chairman of the Jewish Agency Zeev Bielski (second from left)
give computers and computer games to the Eshkol region, on the Gaza border. 

At the control and command room of Hof Ashkelon we met with council head Yair Farjoun and the head of the welfare department. They gave us an overview about what the council is doing. During our visit there were two red alert sirens.  We then went to a community on the border, which is considered a closed military area. As we were waiting for permission to enter, another red alert siren screeched through the air, and we all ran into the closest protective trenches for cover. What a day!

Pierre and Zeev listen to a briefing from members of the Sdot Regional Council.

As we approached the offices of the regional council of Sdot Negev, we saw a mushroom of smoke rising over Gaza. We all prayed that our soldiers were unharmed.

Zeev, together with Pierre, gave the Eshkol regional council 30 computers with games, for the children to use in the bomb shelters.

We visited three regional councils and a number of Gaza border communities. We heard their stories and listened to their needs. I was so tired at the end of the day, but filled with satisfaction and pride at being part of this organization, the Jewish Agency, and strengthened by the incredible people in the South and their resilience in the face of such trying times.   

Ofer Baram is Jewish Agency Director of Community Relations, Israel Southern Region.

Photo Credit: Ofer Baram and Ohad Drori 

January 11, 2009 / 15 Tevet 5769

This weekend my family and I were together for the first time in a long time. Today, my oldest son begins his army training as a medic, and I'm not sure when we'll see him next.

I also had a small window of time on Friday to tend my garden and take care of household things that had been ignored the past few weeks. But our sense of calm was shattered on Friday afternoon when the Israeli army carried out a synchronized artillery, naval and air attack that was coordinated on the border of our Kibbutz, which is now a closed military area.

I ran out with the other Kibbutz members to see what was happening, and it was here that I saw "Israel Yayafa" – beautiful Israel. Not the external beauty, but the internal beauty of the people of Israel. Basketball stars from our national team had come in huge trucks filled with toys, presents and food. A Nike truck was filled with sports goods for the kids. Israel's top artists came to our pub morning, afternoon and evening to perform for the area residents and soldiers. It was a classic example of everyone simply joining hands and doing what they could in this time of war.

At 5:00 am Saturday morning the ground shook with the ferocity of the fighting from Gaza. I could not fall back to sleep. I walked to the fence of our Kibbutz, and it was here that I was struck by the pure physical beauty of our region. The sun was rising in a huge blaze of orange glory over the horizon, illuminating the rolling green pastures of our Kibbutz, with the Gaza Strip in the distance.

I said to myself, "What a gorgeous view, why is it impossible to live here in peace and enjoy it?" The answer eludes us.

In the afternoon I helped a childhood friend whose daughter is in an elite unit inside the Gaza Strip. I let her and her family into the Kibbutz and we went into the closed military area. We met soldiers' from her daughters unit, and an hour later her officer miraculously brought their daughter to see them. It was a two-hour reunion filled with raw, unbridled emotion - well worth the effort and danger.

Ofer Baram is Jewish Agency Director of Community Relations, Israel Southern Region.

January 9, 2009 / 13 Tevet 5769

We received assistance from the UJC for respite activities for the children Wednesday evening. Thursday morning 16 buses took 800 children and their parents to the Safari in Ramat Gan. For some, it was the first time out in two weeks.

Yesterday, seeing how excited the kids were to go to the Safari in Ramat Gan was worth all the work of the night before. In the span of 12 hours we organized 800 children and their parents to go for a day of fun at the Ramat Gan Safari. Some of the mothers told me that since the war started two weeks ago they had not been out of the house with their children, other than to do the most basic things.

It was a beautiful sunny day at the Safari. The children ran around the park, saw elephants, giraffes, chimpanzees and other animals I don't even know the names of. The parents were finally able to relax. No one had to look to see where the nearest bomb shelter was. There were no red alert sirens. It was a simple outing, but paradise for people who have been living in a war zone.

My wife, Hanita, and my younger son Ori, 17, came back to the Kibbutz last night. My other son is in the army, in basic training. We are right next to the Gaza border and have been living with rocket attacks for eight years. When the violence escalated, they, like many of the Kibbutz members went to spend time with family away from the region. But Ori needs to take his matriculation exams and they came back to meet with the school administration and staff to decide what to do. If school is not open on Sunday, they will start long-distance learning programs via computer. I'm just wondering what children without computers will do.

But lots of people are now returning to the Kibbutz. It is not easy to go from relative to relative and live out of a suitcase. People want to be in their own houses with their family. To sleep in their own beds. To get back into their routine, even if it's under rocket fire. For in the end, this is our home, our land, our country, and we have no where else to go.

Ofer Baram is Jewish Agency Director of Community Relations, Israel Southern Region.

Photo Credit: Azri Samin

January 7, 2009 / 11 Tevet 5769

On May 15th, 2007 Hamas took over the Gaza Strip. This was when the chaos really started. 40-50 Kassam rockets crashed into Sderot daily. People needed immediate help. It was then that we launched our SOS Fund. Unfortunately, demand for assistance just keeps growing.

I was thinking today of how the SOS Fund came to be so important. And how, in the span of 18 months I went from a man in an office job, to a man in the field who knows almost everyone in Sderot and the Gaza perimeter communities.

Command and control room at IBIM. Two Kassam rockets stand against the wall.

I came to the position of Director of Community Relations in the Southern Region after seven years as an Absorption Center Director. When the rocket attacks escalated I went to Soni Singer, Director of IBIM, and asked her what she needed. Together, we organized a control and command room at IBIM and brought equipment for bomb shelters in Ethiopian neighborhoods. People started turning to us for help. I met with the heads of the local councils and welfare services to see what they needed. They said that houses were getting hit by missiles and people needed immediate assistance. I took this idea to the board of the Fund for the Victims of Terror, supported by the Israel Emergency Campaign (IEC), and the SOS Fund was launched.

Ofer Baram

At the same time, we hosted hundreds of solidarity missions, from individuals to hundreds of participants. It was here that I met some very special people, committed to Israel and to the Jewish people. One of them has become a very dear friend, Jon Gurkoff and his wife Stevi, from North Caldwell, New Jersey. They work tirelessly on behalf of the Jewish people, and never fail to spread the word about the untenable situation in the western Negev. While in New York they hosted my son and I, and when they visited Israel with friends Laurie and Howard Taylor, they made a donation to the fund in my name.

Our friendship is very dear to me. And now, when we are in the midst of a war, Jon has sent this blog out to friends everywhere. They have then sent it on to their friends and everyday I receive letters of support and prayer from Jewish people that I don't even know. It is an extraordinary feeling. I feel that I am making a difference. That I am bringing a real message to people around the world about what is happening to us. And with increased support, I hope with all my heart that one day we will return to living normal lives, like normal people in this beautiful region we call home.

Ofer Baram is Jewish Agency Director of Community Relations, Israel Southern Region.

Photo Credit: Ofer Baram and Ohad Drori 

January 6, 2009 / 10 Tevet 5769

Today, I gave a check from the SOS Fund to a young woman from a rural settlement who fell while running to the bomb shelter. She broke all of her front teeth. With the Fund's assistance, she can afford to fix them.

It was a good day today. I gave checks to a number of people. I went to Netivot to find Rivka Cohen, whose wood house was demolished by a missile. All of her clothes were ruined, along with most of her household items, other than her bookshelf of religious books. I found her niece at home, who said that she was at the Welfare Department offices. "They have no money," her niece told me sadly, although I already knew that.

Rivka Cohen cashes her much-needed SOS check at the bank.

I went from the Welfare Department to the bank to the local grocery store, but I couldn't find Rivka. Finally, as I was pulling out of the parking lot I spotted her, limping slowly. "Rivka," I shouted. "I have a check for you." But the bank was so crowded that Rivka didn’t have the energy to cash her check. This happens to be my bank as well, so I took her upstairs to the manager, told him her story and asked him to cash her check immediately. As I said goodbye to Rivka she looked at me and simply said, "Now I can buy clothes. Thank you."

I then continued to the home of Vivian and David Fahima in Sderot, whose house was hit by a rocket yesterday. The Fahima's have been living in Sderot for over 50 years. Their house was one of the first built after the immigrants from Morocco left the ma'abarot (tent camps) in the '50's. Two hours after the rocket attack they were already back in the house. David showed me the wall in the house that he told his wife to stand next to whenever there is a red alert siren. She stood there and this saved her life.

Two hours after a rocket exploded close by, volunteers help the Fahima's clean up the debris.

David had gone out to buy milk. He had just parked his car in the garage when he heard the siren. He crouched between the garage door and the front of his car. The garage windows were blown out, but David was OK. When the municipal workers came to offer alternate shelter David said, "This is my home, I am not leaving."

Volunteers from the "One Heart" (Lev Echad) organization cleaned out the debris. There are sheets of plastic covering the windows, but the Fahima's are just glad to be home.

As I went through my day, I mourned for the soldiers who were killed last night. When I returned from my Kibbutz there were ambulances, police and army personnel all around. The area was closed to everyone but the military. It was here that they were bringing the dead and wounded to take them back to Israel. It was a horrible feeling; a sight that I will never forget.

Ofer Baram is Jewish Agency Director of Community Relations, Israel Southern Region.

Photo Credit: Ofer Baram and Ohad Drori 

January 5, 2009 / 9 Tevet 5769

At 11:00 this morning I drove to Sderot to get details from the people whose homes were hit by missiles yesterday. The red alert siren sounded and I dashed for the portable shelter on the street. A tremendous "boom" exploded very close to us. My heart was racing.

Eight years of living in danger and I have never been as close to a falling rocket as I was this morning. I "shared" the protected shelter on the street with a  young Ethiopian woman and an old man who barely made it inside. The woman screamed when we heard the crash of the rocket. The man looked ready to pass out. I put my fear aside and told them that everything was OK. That we were all fine. Helping them gave me strength.

I had my camera with me that I use for the SOS Fund. I immediately ran to take pictures to show people the grim reality of a rocket attack. The rocket fell in a neighborhood populated mostly by elderly people. Many of them were in shock and when the police and ambulance arrived within minutes, eight were taken to the hospital. The site was immediately cordoned off and the police and rescue workers went into immediate action. They have the routine down pat.

Debris, glass and personal items were scattered everywhere. The shattered look in peoples' eyes when they realized that it was their home that was hit was terrible. Sometimes I wonder where I get my own strength from. I feel like a well-oiled spring, always ready to jump in wherever help is needed.

As I left the scene, I looked around and noticed that Israeli flags were waving from the windows of almost all the houses on the block. And tough-looking teenagers were sweeping up the broken glass so no one would get hurt.

Ofer Baram is Jewish Agency Director of Community Relations, Israel Southern Region.

Photo Credit: Ofer Baram and Ohad Drori 

January 4, 2009 / 8 Tevet 5769

Michael Bloomberg, Mayor of New York City, was in Sderot today to see the situation first hand. It made me proud that a Jewish mayor of one of the world's major cities cared enough to risk his life to show solidarity with us.

Michael Bloomberg visited Sderot today, and like we do every day, he ran for cover when a red siren alert sounded. It lifted people's spirits to know that he supported Israel's actions, and to hear him say that he would not have reacted differently if his citizens were in danger. 

Today, 45 rockets hit the South. And what amazes me is the miracles I see day after day. I am not a religious man. But the events that unfold sometimes make me wonder.

The Idan family from Netivot has a special needs son. They also have 10 other children. During Chanukah they brought their son home to celebrate with them. This was the first time a siren was heard in Netivot. The entire family, with their son who just came home, ran to the bomb shelter. He was unaware of the danger, but loved the chaos of everyone running and all the excitement in the shelter. When it came time to leave the shelter, the father saw his son and said, "Let's stay a bit longer. He looks so happy." Minutes later a Grad missile fell directly on their home, destroying everything. 

Rivka Cohen miraculously survived this missile attack on her house, made completely of wood.

In another Netivot neighborhood, Rivka Cohen was at home yesterday afternoon while her husband went to synagogue. They live in a house made from wood. Rivka had to go to the bathroom. A missile crashed into their house, devastating it. The bathroom stayed intact, and Rivka, and the bookshelf with religious books, were untouched. I saw the house and I thought to myself, "How could anyone have come out of this house alive?"

Today, Masudi Dayan, a 70-something woman from Sderot ran to the corner of her bathroom when she heard the red alert siren. Her house was demolished, but the bathroom was untouched, and Masudi survived unscathed.

Time after time I see rooms devastated, but the religious books are untouched. Or debris litters a home, windows are shattered, yet the pictures of revered rabbis are still standing on the walls.

I can't begin to explain these events. I am just glad that day after day, in the midst of all the misery I see, there are still miracles that we need to be thankful for.  

Ofer Baram is Jewish Agency Director of Community Relations, Israel Southern Region.

Photo Credit: Ofer Baram and Ohad Drori 

January 2, 2009 / 6 Tevet 5769

In a country that is known for its bureaucracy, the SOS Fund for Victims of Terror runs like clockwork. Within 48 hours of an attack, we deliver a check in hand.

Yesterday I took a reporter and photographer from one of Israel's largest daily newspapers to see what was really happening in the field. The day was an emotion-filled one, with equal measures of hope and despair intermingling at every visit we made.

After a rocket or missile damages a home, Ohad Drory, the social worker for the Victims of Terror Fund and I visit the site. We get information from the person that allows us to prepare a check for them. Sometimes the people are hysterical; they feel that they are drowning in uncertainty. In a split second their home, their foundation is destroyed. But when they see that we are there to listen and to help them it calms them down. Because we have been in this situation so many times, we are also able to give them solid advice on what they need to do, and this is like an anchor for them.

After Drory and I process each person's details we send it to Jewish Agency headquarters in Jerusalem. A check is immediately prepared. This is then sent to us and we go out and deliver the check personally to every person.

When I went with the reporter, we were delivering checks on Thursday to people whose homes had been hit on Tuesday. They were shocked to see us. Shocked that we had told them that we would return with assistance, and we did.

"We have been running around in circles, not knowing what to do," cried one of the recipients. "You are the only ones who promised us something and actually came through. Thank you."

One man even apologized to us. "I thought you were full of it when you said you were coming back with a check," said one man. "I am sorry for doubting you."

People living on the front-line, whose lives have been shattered, need hope. They need to know that someone out there cares. We take responsibility, and prove to people that we are with them. No small task in these troubled times.

Ofer Baram is Jewish Agency Director of Community Relations, Israel Southern Region.

Photo Credit: Ofer Baram and Ohad Drori

January 1, 2009 / 5 Tevet 5769

The long awaited rain came with a vengeance yesterday. I couldn't stop thinking about the people whose bombed-out homes had no roofs or windows. Where were they sleeping? What would be left at the end of the day?

I accompanied Jewish Agency Chairman Zeev Bielski and treasurer Hagai Meirom to the front-line cities and towns yesterday. We are doing good – helping people.

In Ashkelon's control and command room, we met with Mayor Benny Vaknin. He and his staff are striving to deal with the complex situations they face. Children are out of school. Businesses are closed. Their city of some 110,000 people is under attack. Budgets are tight, but we spoke about the need to take the children out of the city, to protect kindergartens and schools, to help small businesses.

We gave new computers to 50 high school students, donated by Electra and Amdocs, whose families are barely getting by. These computers will make it possible for them to join the distance learning program while in their bomb shelters, like the other kids. Their joy from our small gesture was incredible.

Jewish Agency Chairman Zeev Bielski (left, standing) gives a check of $1,000 to Maid Abu Sahiban from Rahat. Maid was wounded in a missile attack.

We visited two missile victims at Barzilai Hospital – Maid Abu Sahiban, a construction worker from the Bedouin town of Rahat, and Dudu Cohen, brother of our Religious Affairs Minister. Funny how missiles cross all social, ethnic and economic lines. We gave $1,000 checks to both. They joked with Zeev and Hagai, and both young men were smiling when we left.

And all throughout the visit, I kept thinking of the people whose homes had been destroyed, and wondering who was helping them.

Ofer Baram is Jewish Agency Director of Community Relations, Israel Southern Region.

Photo Credit: Ofer Baram and Ohad Drori

I live two miles from the Gaza border on Kibbutz Kfar Aza. Last May, a fellow Kibbutz member was killed by a Kassam rocket. From the 800 original members eight years ago, only 100 people remain. I stay because there is so much work to do, and not many people who are willing to do it.

The people living in the Gaza perimeter communities are a close-knit group. We all know each other and we take care of each other. When a Kassam rocket falls we all know where it fell and whose house it hit. We have been living in a state of war for eight years. For the past three years I have been the Jewish Agency's Southern Region Community Director. A major part of my job is arriving on the scene of an attack and offering the victims immediate financial assistance in the sum of $1,000, as part of the Fund for Victims of Terror's SOS Fund.

Miriam's wheelchair is buried under the rubble

Sometimes this money is a drop in the bucket, compared to the staggering burden of losing everything. But when I give the check to people within 48 hours, it brings tears to their eyes. For some, it pays for immediate food and clothing. For others, it covers initial hospital bills. For all, it shows that someone cares. When a person stands in the midst of their bombed out home, and they have to struggle to receive their compensation, they feel abandoned. We don't ask questions. We see the damage, we get their details, and we give them money with an open heart.  The funds come from Jewish people abroad who gave so generously to the Israel Emergency Campaign (IEC).

Yesterday, I went to the home of Miriam Ezra. She is 72-years-old and is wheelchair bound. At 10:00 am her son, Shlomi, feared for her life and took her to his family in Holon. At 4:00 pm a Kassam rocket hit her house, burying her wheelchair under the rubble. It is for people like Miriam, and the hundreds of others like her, that I risk my life everyday to help.

Ofer Baram is Jewish Agency Director of Community Relations, Israel Southern Region.

Photo Credit: Ofer Baram and Ohad Drori