To our dear friends and partners,
Today is Thursday, the 30th day of the war.
Yesterday was a tragic day for us as word came that 15 of our soldiers had fallen in Lebanon throughout the day and among them was Ben Sela, a 24-year-old reserve soldier from Koranit, graduate of our Misgav regional high school and grandson to long time Karmiel residents.
For hours on end throughout the day, the endless sirens forced us to remain in our shelters and secure rooms.
Today was another day in which more than 110 rockets and missiles struck communities across the north, at least 10 were known to have fallen in Karmiel. One rocket fell in the front yard of a house on Hadas St, a street that has twice suffered from Katyusha attacks over the past month. Luckily, the rocket landed without exploding thereby causing only relatively minor damage (e.g. broken windows, etc).
This war has also been a difficult and tragic war for our neighbors from the surrounding Bedouin, Christian, Moslem and Druze communities as well. The rockets fired by the Hezbollah from Lebanon do not differentiate between Arab, Druze or Jewish blood; they maim, kill and destroy all that is in their path. Today a young mother and her 5-year-old son from the Moslem village of Dir Al Assad, just across the road from Karmiel were killed when a Katyusha rocket struck their home wounding other family members as well.
Staff Sergeant (Res.) Ben (Benjamin) Sela, 24 years old from Koranit
Ben Sela fell in Lebanon during his first reserve call up to a special operations unit since having been released from the army two years ago after having served in a paratroop reconnaissance company. Last Monday Ben came home for a brief visit and sadly, this was to be the last meeting between him and his family.
Yehudit, his mother said, "I had a feeling that this was our final meeting. I knew what his job was, it was clear to me that he would enter Lebanon. I had a very bad feeling. It never let up. I was sure that his was what was going to happen."
His grandmother Sarah told us that Ben was named in memory of her father. "It's hard to think of this beautiful child with a heart of gold who so resembled his grandfather and was always prepared to lend a helping hand."
Ben's father Yossi told us last Monday he went to pick Ben up from his unit so that he wouldn't have to hitchhike home for a short vacation. "He toured the world on foot and on horseback. Got to places that I'll never see", he said. "He made friends everywhere he went. Recently he started a tour guide course together with a friend in order to be trained to lead organized tours abroad.
We didn't want him hitchhiking. We picked him up, kissed him, said goodbye and he said 'enough already'. This was our last time together. It's such a pity. I loved him so much; in fact I still do love him."
Ben's funeral will be held today at the Misgav Regional Cemetery.
The war goes on, our area alone has already lost five of its best sons and an end is not in sight.
It is difficult to continue, but that we must. We must continue to maintain the "State of Emergency", supply the needs of our residents, support our soldiers and believe in our government.
So What Happened Here Today?
Rabbi Yitzhak Cohen, the minister responsible for religious affairs visited Karmiel today. In addition, a group of eight Portuguese Catholic priests also toured the city; spoke with residents concerning their plight and asked the mayor for his help in arranging them entrance into Rambam Hospital in Haifa in order to distribute gift packages to the wounded.
Today the city of Karmiel decided to open day camps in three shelters situated in city schools in three of the city's neighborhoods. The camps will be held at the Ofek Elementary School in the Rabin Quarter, the Nitzanim Elementary School in Eshkol and Rakefet Elementary in Givat Ram. The day camps are intended for children from the age of five years old. They will operate daily from 8:00 AM to 1:00 PM. The decision to open the camps was reached in order to provide the children from these neighborhoods with a diversion and give their parents a break as well after having been confined to their homes, shelters, and secure rooms for the past 30 days! The camps will be run by community center staff members, kindergarten assistants, soldiers and volunteers. Throughout the day, the kids will receive a sandwich and a drink. In order to make things easier for the parents funding for this activity will be the city's responsibility.
Parents will be informed of the day camp by means of the mayor's daily telephone message, the city's website and ads in the local press.
The city has also initiated a number of family day trips to various attractions in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. Admission for many of the locations was free and transportation was funded in part by the Ministry of Education.
The ongoing warfare and large numbers of injured (both military and civilian) has caused a significant blood shortage. The Misgav Regional Council, in cooperation with the MDA Blood Bank decided to conduct another blood donation drive in the region. During the previous drive, 72 units of fresh blood were donated by area residents. The next blood donation drive will take place on Tuesday August 15, 2006 at the Misgav Health and Welfare Center Bomb Shelter. Specific information concerning the drive will be publicized in the council's website.
"You Can Always Find Some Good Folks Along The Way"-
In spite (and no doubt because) of the long and difficult war the People of Israel continue to contribute and volunteer to help the needy. Today I would like to share with you a report that I received from Jimmy Nishry, father of Tamar and husband to Nili who many of you know through her fine volunteer efforts with Bedouin women within the framework of the region's "Weiner NA'AMAT Pittsburgh Center for Women's Health-Education".
As a teen, our daughter Tamar Nishry was a youth movement counselor and a counselor at one of Pittsburgh's summer camps. Recently she completed her first year in Social Work at Tel Hai; and currently is working (very hard) at Nitzanim (day camp).
One of her volunteer deeds was to collect toys and games for children in shelters. She and her fellow students collected several truckloads that were sent to shelters in Kiryat Shmona, Nahariya and Akko. She set aside about 30 items that we wanted to give to Hiriya, a kindergarten teacher from Hosinia (A Misgav area Bedouin village) working at the Arab-El-Na'im kindergarten. Yesterday Hiriya came to pick up the toys, and... we had another siren. I couldn't resist taking a picture of Hiriya with Nili in our mini-shelter, under the staircase.
Today August 10 is three weeks before the opening of the school year in Israel. I asked Menahem Shechel, director of Karmiel's Education Department to share with us some information as to what is being done in the city to prepare for the upcoming school year.
Menachem explained that until this week the Education Department had been on an emergency footing, for the most part dealing in crisis response. This included transporting children and young people out of the city for various activities and camps, supervising the psychological and psychiatric services provided by the city's Psychological Services. The service included 10 psychiatrists working 24/7 in the shelters, conducting home visits and individual treatments within the framework of the center's services.
This week the mayor instructed the department to begin preparing for the opening of the school year, subject of course to instructions from the Ministry of Education and the Home Front Command.
Karmiel has 57 kindergartens (compulsory at age 5), 10 elementary schools, 5 high schools and a student body of nearly 10,000 children.
As the war continues and the continued uncertainty regarding its conclusion, preparations for the opening of the school year are conducted along two parallel channels.
Channel One- a return to a normal daily routine, i.e. the school year opens in a regular fashion including minimal physical preparations of the city's schools (full scale renovations are impossible because of the current situation), dealing with pupil transfer requests, preparations for implementing supplemental instruction (until 3:30PM) in the city's kindergartens and teacher placement. This channel would also facilitate reaching a decision at the municipal level concerning the future status of the supplemental instructional hours' instituted last year in city schools following implementation of the controversial Dovrat Report.
The difficulties caused by the war: communication difficulties with schools' faculties, kindergarten staffs and parents who are outside either the city and/or the country.
Channel Two- the school year will open in a situation similar to the current state of emergency, i.e. it will be possible to operate only in those schools that have a shelter or secure room. Although every school has a shelter, it is not feasible that we will be able to conduct a normal school day for the entire student body.
Psychological and Social Services Support- The Education Department, in cooperation the Psychological & Psychiatric Services and the city's Social Services Administration has begun to formulate a therapeutic intervention program for "the day after". It is already clear that there will be a serious need for a well-structured program in all of the city's educational frameworks. This program will also need to work with families and on an individual basis as well.
That's all for today, let us pray that quiet will be restored and peace and security will return to the region and the country.
The next report will be issued on Monday, August 14.
Until then, Shabbat Shalom,
Yael Raich - Partnership 2000 Karmiel-Misgav-Pittsburgh/
The Jewish Agency for Israel