Visit to Ashkelon 3-22

Hey guys,

I want to again thank everyone for visiting the blog...it's been getting a lot of individual hits lately and I'm sure that's because many of you have spread the word and have been avid readers yourselves. I should be doing and seeing some very cool stuff in the coming weeks and months and I look forward to bringing that to you in text and picture form.


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Some funky, new age Israeli art work.

Ashkelon is a city of about 100,000 that sits on Israel's golden [Mediterranean] coast. Situated about 50 km (30 miles) South of Tel Aviv (one hour by bus) and 10 km (6 miles) North of the Gaza Strip the city has a beautiful coastline and beaches and a lot of new medium-rise construction. Villas near the water look, stylistically, like homes in Southern Europe and the Caribbean--red tile roofs, pastel shades of stucco, and architecture that mixes Middle Eastern and Southern European traditions. Though not a major historical site or port city the clean coastline and quaint feel of this Southern city does attract tourists looking to avoid the crowds and bustle of cities further North.

View of the hotels on the beach (above) and an amphitheatre next to the Marina where we met the highschoolers (below).

Mid-rise buildings and some villas to the right (below).

Prior to 2008 Ashkelon was not a target of Hamas rockets. (Hamas is currently the governing body and militant group located, primarily, in the Gaza Strip.) Last year the reality of the citizens of Ashkelon changed as rocket-fire hit the city for the first time. The first heavy attacks came December 2008 as the ceasefire that had held between Israel and Hamas broke down. The months of December, January, and part of February saw, on some days, dozens of rockets being fired in the direction of Ashkelon. Because of the primitive nature of the rockets and hence the difficulty of aiming them, many of them hit outside of the city or lightly-populated areas.

When Sam and I visited Ashkelon I think we were both anticipating something different. The city hummed with activity -- cars whizzed by in typical Israeli fashion- with exhaust fumes, beeping, and a lot of lane-shifting. Vendors were selling clothes and food and people were everywhere. Yet, not more than two or three weeks ago rockets had been hitting this very
town. We saw nothing that even resembled a rocket attack- no burned out buildings, no closed down streets, nothing. With the intent of talking to some of the local inhabitants I had taken a notepad and my audio recorder and fortunately (for me and the readers of this blog) got a chance to speak to two high school seniors (Shenhav and Inbar) who had stayed in Ashkelon during the bombings. They presented a very real and sobering account of life under rocket fire, the conversation moving from what daily life was like to their opinions on the military actions in Gaza. We spoke to them at the Marina, a popular hangout location on the shore with a few bars, restaurants, and boats. Until the girls said that a rocket had hit the Marina and had resulted in several business closures we had no idea that the area had been hit at all.

Shenhav (left) and Inbar (right), seniors at high school in Ashkelon (above).

The conversation was very real for someone coming from a place (Needham) that only gets close to the word "rocket" when people cheer for our high school sports teams [Needham Rockets]. Though some of what the girls said was serious, the conversation was punctuated by laughter and what seems to me as the Israeli spirit. When I asked whether people wanted to stay and raise families in Ashkelon the response was one of courage and defiance--

It's the Fact that they are here, there are [many] more places in our country that people can go, safer places, cheaper places to live in, but I think that if [we keep moving] then...it will never stop.

Powerful words that, to me, define the mentality of Israelis.

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I am currently working on the audio portion of my trip which (I hope) will be up by next week. I want to thank Shenhav and Inbar for taking time out of taking pictures for their yearbook to speak with me and I want to wish them the best of luck in the Israeli military later this year.

UPDATE: A Quassam rocket landed just South of Ashkelon yesterday (Tuesday 3/24)...no casualties were reported and no damage was done...it was the first rocket attack in ten days

Link: Quassam lands in Ashkelon