When “Home” is Within Rocket Range

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The Kindergarden in kibbutz Nachal Oz located less than a kilometer from Gaza. The seven meter high concrete wall, together with a reinforced roof of the building inside, is necessary to protect against the rockets from Hamas.

She did not write her name, but she lives in a kibbutz in the region that in Hebrew is called “otef Aza” and refers to the areas just outside Gaza. There are tens of smaller communities in this area, and some bigger ones, such as for instance Sderot. During the last seventeen years, the inhabitants here have suffered terror attacks from Hamas, Islamic Jihad, and other terror organizations in Gaza. 

“What? But that is on otef Aza! Why do you live there? Why do you do such a thing to yourself? Why do you not move to somewhere else?”

This, she writes on Instagram, is the reaction when she tells people where she comes from. Her answer follows here:

 “I live here because this is my childhood, and my family’s too. A childhood that slowly is being stolen from me – but it is my childhood.

Why do I do such a thing to myself? Do what? Live in a place I love? With people I love? No, I am not going to move, not me,   neither my family, and I am certain none of my friends will move either. I live here of my own free will. This is not a punishment. It is our choice; we have chosen to live here.

We all know very well that these are the questions we will be asked. And to be honest, I can partly understand it. Why would you ask a child from Haifa why he lives there? It sounds a little weird, does it not? Why would you ask a child from Eilat why he lives there? It is more normal to ask a child from otef Aza why he lives where he lives.

But it is not clear to me why people think it is legitimate; not clear to me why it continues; why, in the eyes of people, otef Aza is a warzone; why cannot otef Aza be “the area outside Ofakim or Beersheva” – not the area outside Gaza? Why do you think it is OK? And why does no one understand that it is not supposed to be like this?

 If we do not live here, no one will. Slowly, everyone will move, the border will come closer – and what happens then? The  State of Israel will no longer exist. The fact that it is far away does not mean we should abandon the area.

Yes, I live at the otef – and no, not in a war zone. I live in my house, which happens to be located outside Gaza.”

Her post received many likes and comments. One of them came from Omer, living in the other end of the country and just a few kilometers from the Lebanese border. He wrote that her post broke his heart, and that as a person living so close the Lebanese border, he can easily identify with the girl from otef Aza.

Northern Israel was for many years under rocket bombardment from the terror organization Hizb’Allah in Lebanon, and there is now a generation of young adults in the north that spent their childhood largely in shelters – just as it has happened outside Gaza.

Omer’s comment proves the point the girl from otef Aza is making; it is impossible to run away from the problem. The problem will keep chasing you.

And pay attention, that although Omer comes from the other end of the country compared to otef Aza, the distance is a mere 200 kilometers; a two-hour drive. Israel has no territory to lose.

Keep praying for peace and protection for Israel, its people, and its borders. 
And say something good about Israel!