Day 618 Of The War: NO Safe Room Or Shelter

Last Thursday, June 12, I returned from a week-long walking trip on the beautiful island of Corsica. It was a wonderful respite from the tension and sadness of the past 615 days (as of last Thursday), and I was looking forward to resuming my shifts in the dining room at the Families Headquarters, as well as attending the Saturday night protests.

But it wasn’t meant to be. At 3 a.m. on Friday morning, I was woken by a horrible, piercing noise from my mobile phone, followed by a siren. Then came the frightening news: we were at war with Iran. As if the past two years hadn’t been enough, here we were again—this time facing Iranian retaliation following a surprise Israeli attack, aiming at nuclear-armed Iran.

This, of course, led to the closure of Israel’s airport, and more than 100,000 Israelis were left stranded abroad, while others found themselves unable to leave the country.

And now to the second topic I wanted to address:

On October 18, the twelfth day of the war, I wrote a blog post titled “A Question of Solidarity.” In it, I discussed the fact that there were not enough public shelters or safe rooms in Israel. https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/day-12-of-the-war-a-question-of-solidarity/

“The question of shelters also connects to solidarity in Israeli society, considering that in its 75 years of existence, the state of Israel has not taken adequate measures to ensure the protection of its citizens. Many public and private buildings lack shelters or safe rooms. Furthermore, over all these years, Israel has maintained the “Defense Regulations” indicating that we are indeed in a state of war. At the same time it has not compelled governments to insure the safety of its citizens during times when they need defending. I can safely assume (forgive the pun) that all the ministers in Netanyahu’s government have shelters in their homes, while many of their voters do not.”

More than 650 days later, while we are still at war, the State of Israel has yet to make any effort to build shelters for its citizens. Now that we are at war with Iran, which is launching heavy missiles at residential areas, this failure has become a serious problem. We constantly hear that we must protect ourselves—yet many of us, myself included, simply don’t have the means to do so.

Several years ago, I filed a request to renovate my house and add a safe room, but the Ramat Gan municipality denied my application. And I’m not alone without a safe room or a nearby public shelter, many Israelis Jews and Arabs still have no place to take shelter during missile attacks. Meanwhile, we’ve been told that the dignitaries—Netanyahu and his coalition—and their families are well taken care of. They are not left without protection.

Wars are horrible to begin with, but they are even worse when you have no trust in those who lead your country.