Kibbutzim, the Gazan Envelope and Red Alert
A kibbutz is a hard concept to explain, but here I go. Traditionally, they were voluntarily socialist societies with Utopian aspirations. Well that was not so hard. But kibbutzim of the past resemble little to the realities of today. In the early days, Kibbutzim were full of Jewish pioneers, settling British occupied Palestine. These were steadfast individuals, who through hard work and perseverance redefined the world’s image of the Jew by creating community and structure in the harsh environments of Palestine.
Kibbutzim were socialist places. Children would be voluntarily taken from parents and raised in a children’s house. Members of the kibbutz were not permitted to have personal items and everybody worked for the good of the collective. Surprisingly, this was a concept that worked and it worked well. Kibbutzim acted as a population incubator and were crucial in developing the Yishuv and declaring statehood in 1948. Fast-forward 71 years, and what do kibbutzim look like today? Well, many have since privatized and now act as a community with businesses. Gone are the days of the children houses and socialized systems, but what remains are the fundamental values which turned Israel from a concept into a creation. To anyone believing Zionism is dead and gone, a small amount of time on a kibbutz like the one i live on is the perfect remedy.
I have lived on Kibbutz Erez for three months now, and my life there seems to transcend time. I often stand in awe with the understanding that places like my kibbutz still exist, where the Zionist dream is perfectly preserved.
Me and my Garin moved to Kibbutz Erez on Wednesday August 16th 2019. The Kibbutz is partnered with our program Garin Tzabar. GT helps Jews from around the world make Aliyah and join the IDF.
It was in March we found out our kibbutz. Our kibbutz is located in the עוטף עזה region, which directly translates to Gaza’s envelope, meaning the territory surrounding the Gaza strip. We are a short drive away from S’derot and about 18 kilometers from the coastal city of Ashkelon. We are very close with our Gazan neighbors, geographically speaking. The town of Beit Hanoun is just across the border and on a clear day you can make it out with detail. Soon after learning about our new home, and our close neighbors, a girl in our program dropped. This was to be expected.
As you get off highway 34 making your way to the Erez’s front gate, you will pass a service road which will take you right to the Gazan border and right to the Erez Crossing checkpoint. This checkpoint is used to bring humanitarian aid into the Gaza strip.
There are a lot of service roads where I live. Get to know the land and a few truths become clear. Before housing and development were possible, agriculture existed here and before that the army, military and war. For fun, my friends and I will roam the kibbutz and explore old bomb bunkers. One of the main symbol’s of Erez is the watch tower. An old wooden and steel tower standing two stories tall, a keepsake from Erez’s early days where someone stood watch day and night.
The regions history is of war, and unfortunately this is both modern history and current reality.
Where I live, every building is equipped with a bomb shelter. ממד (mamad) in Hebrew. These are large rooms with thick concrete-reinforced walls, designed to withstand explosions and rockets.
On the kibbutz, my room is in fact a ממד. I actually prefer this. Every night when I am ready to go to bed I slip away into my room, which has an allusion of a polar bear’s cave or dojo, and find it easy to ease into sleep with so few distractions. This isn’t the first time I have slept in a ממד either. In Sarona TLV, I shared a shelter room with Max Sinton for five months…
***On a separate note: All the respect to Max, who just made the plunge himself and made Aliyah and is expecting to Draft into the IDF this Summer. כל הכבוד אח שלי***
So its not just in the proximity of the Gaza strip that homes come equipped with shelters. Even in some of the nicest places in Tel Aviv, you must be prepared for the worst and arguably the inevitable.
Well in עוטף עזה the rockets are inevitable, and life only works due to the diligence and hard work of the communities.
Additionally, life only works due to the support and assistance of the diaspora, a point I wish more Israelis would reflect on and come to appreciate.
Shelters are everywhere in the region, and shelters are not cheap commodities. Minimum we are talking about $25,000 usd per shelter, and this is something that you cannot afford to get a cheaper model. They are everywhere, and I mean everywhere. On my kibbutz, there is always a shelter visible no matter where you are located.
The diaspora plays a big role in making all this possible, I have seen dozens of shelters with NJF logos. The National Jewish Fund is even responsible for helping develop a new neighborhood within Erez. While the shelters and developments are crucial for Israeli life and existence in the area, none of it could be possible without the military aid Israel receives to support its Iron dome system.
Maybe you have heard about it?
The idea is we use rockets to shoot their rockets out of the sky, and it is fucking insane. Sounds simple enough, right? I will tell you about the first time I saw it for myself.
It was the first Shabbat on Erez, we had been there three days. My friends and I are standing in our courtyard shooting the shit after a great meal. The star’s there hit different and on many cloudless nights like that one I would find myself looking up. This is exactly what I was doing when I saw it.
What first appeared to be a light-less shooting star came into my periphery before flying overhead. When it was directly above me, it had the appearance of a firework like all the ones I would watch with my family on the 4th of July. It was at this moment, when the strange-firework was directly overhead, a second projectile, and iron dome rocket, directly intersected it. Exploding in the sky with fire and destruction. The noise was enormous. The ground shook. We all stood in disillusion. Then the sirens:אדום צבע אדום צבע (red alert, red alert). We all race to the rooms, not minding whose they were just trying to get as quickly as possible into a shelter. Once in the shelter, we secure the window with a sliding metal frame while explosions and sirens continue outside.
If you have never experienced something like this it is hard to understand how you would react. For me, the shear randomness of it all was bizarre. To transition from a moment of blissfulness to running for my life with little preparation was, for lack of better words, bizarre. Even once in the shelter, it didn’t seem real. But it most definitely was. Fortunately, that episode ended quickly and we were able to continue on with our nights after ten or so minutes. The smooth transition back into our regular activities added much to the randomness of the experience. But such is the reality of the region.
The next time there were rockets I was on my yoga mat outside. When I practice yoga, I seek to find a state where nothing from the outside world can affect or interact with me. I was in a state like this, folding deep into a forward fold, when צבע אדום rang out. I didn’t hear it. The explosion following I heard, pulling me away from my practice and putting me in a sprint to the closest shelter. It’s an instinct, I don’t know if I was born with it or adopted it but when you hear a noise like the noise of rockets exploding over your head you just drop what your doing and RUN.
The most serious episode happened recently. It was Tuesday, November 12th. My girlfriend Sophie wakes me up at around 5:30 am. She was shocked to find me asleep for there had been many rockets over the past half hour. A little surprised I shrug and welcome her in, the first of many guests that morning. By 6 am, there had been more rockets and my suitemates: Dmitri and Shimi were now taking refuge in the ממד with us.
We curse Hamas. We learn late the night before the IDF assassinated Bahaa Abu el-Atta, a pretty big Gazan Jihadist, and Hamas was ready to wage a war.
Any diligent Israeli will have this app, Red alert, on their phone. And on that day it couldn’t keep quiet.
Over 200 rockets were fired from Gaza into Israel. We spent the entire morning going from one shelter to the next. In the early evening, my group was organized in our מועדון (club house) and informed of the situation. As the tensions were not seeming to die down, Garin Tzabar, as the lawful body responsible for our safety, decided it was time to evacuate.
We were shocked, scared and in disbelief. For many of us, the idea of driving anywhere during the conflict was absurd. Just that morning a rocket had landed on an Israeli highway. We bickered and fought but the decision was coming from above, from the Garin Tzabar council. While we were holding out fine, other kibbutzim in the region weren’t. We were evacuated for our safety and also to stand in solidarity with our friends on Kibbutz Orim and Kissufim who had been forced into shelters all day.
As dusk turned to nighttime, we made our move. We packed for the unknown, we had no idea when we would return. The tentative plan was to stay in community called Nitzana deep in the south along the border with the Egyptian Sinai peninsula until Sunday, that was in five days. I packed the essentials, and made sure to bring my yoga mat. Before leaving, I ran over to my host family where I bid them farewell, they wouldn’t be evacuating. This was not their first rodeo. As I said goodbye to them, I remember being scared and thought how their kids must feel and how themselves as parents feel. All these thoughts were swirling in my head as we boarded the bus and slipped away.
We were slipping away. The second we were boarded the bus was off. No one talked. No lights were on, not even the Bus’s front beams. As we left the kibbutz’s road and made it onto the highway we were waved at by infantry soldiers, they were everywhere. All the roads were closed, we were the only non-military vehicle driving. We immediately get off the highway and take a series of service roads I had never seen before heading due east, trying to get as far from Gaza as possible before beginning the journey down south to Nitzana. After 30 minutes or so, tensions started to lighten up and the atmosphere eased. I hug Sophie and my friends, knowing the worst is behind us and try to reflect on what the last 24 hours had been like.
The experience was intense. I wish no one ever has to flee their own home in preservation of their safety. On our way to Nitzana, I was struck by an ah-ha moment. It has been my goal for years to move to Israel and know Israeli existence and experience as my own. In such an undertaking, you don’t get to pick and choose. My experiences of the last 24 hours bring me one step closer to my goals of acclimating to Israeli society, the highs of it and the lows.
They also shape my narrative and effect my perspective. Hamas didn’t kill, but their attempts definitely made me stronger. I am proud to undertake the burden of Israeli existence because it is my burden to take.
I hope someday soon, war is not normalized. I hope the people living in Gaza can purge from their society radicalism and jihadism and can enjoy a higher quality of life. I hope the children growing up in עוטף עזה don’t become traumatized by experiences like the one we had on November 12th 2019. And mostly I hope that my experiences now, living in עוטף עזה and joining the IDF will heighten my narrative and understanding to allow me to be voice of change in the future and help the people of this region strive for perfection.
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