Gaydamak was one of a number of business leaders approached by Batia Katar, head of the local parents’ committee in Sderot for funds to send their traumatized children for a short break away from the sounds of Kassam rockets exploding around them.
The billionaire agreed to pay a week-long vacation at five hotels in Eilat. Families with babies and smaller children were taken to the hotels in the Red Sea resort town on Thursday afternoon. Those with older children and teens were set to follow them on Friday, reaching a total of some 1,000 residents who were leaving the city for a week.
“The tension is very high and is affecting the children,” said Katar. “We therefore asked [Gaydamak] to take the children out now for a break from studies, for a holiday, and so on,” she said Thursday.
Now Gaydamak is being criticized by the Defense Minister, who is also a resident of Sderot, as well as by Knesset members who see the billionaire’s willingness to respond with largesse as a bid for political power.
Peretz told reporters late Thursday that it was not appropriate to “order the abandonment and flight from Sderot,” but said instead that the residents should be allowed to “take vacations in an organized fashion.”
Peretz, who himself is under fire for mismanagement of the recent war with Hizbullah terrorists in southern Lebanon, carped “The State of Israel won’t allow control by wealthy men and philanthropists over citizens’ troubles. We will prepare an organized program, carried out by the authorities’, to relieve the citizens.”
Peretz was joined by several Knesset members in condemning Gaydamak for his cooperation with the terrorized parents.
National Union – National Religious Party (NU-NRP) Knesset member Yitzhak Levy was one of several who balked at the move. “Evacuating the students is an imaginary solution intended to provide temporary relief for residents and to avoid dealing with the government’s failure in preventing the Kassams’ firing for good,” he said.
Levy’s colleague, NRP Knesset member Nissan Slomiansky said that Gaydamak’s willingness to send the children away for a short vacation was well-intended but misguided.
“His solution is the opposite of what needs to be done,” said Slomiansky. “The solution is fighting without compromises. Is Gaydamak capable of evacuating the children of Ashkelon and Ashdod tomorrow? Because the Kassams will ultimately reach everywhere.”
Slomiansky added, “A vacation in Eilat could be good only after the Kassam firing stops.”
The private evacuation raised ire among city officials as well as at the state government level. Politicians claimed the brief respite, which had not been officially coordinated with the municipality, did not serve the city’s interests.
One senior education official told a reporter from the Jerusalem Post that Sderot Mayor Eli Moyal had “made a policy decision not to send children out of Sderot and to have the work of calming the population take place inside the city.”
The billionaire agreed to pay a week-long vacation at five hotels in Eilat. Families with babies and smaller children were taken to the hotels in the Red Sea resort town on Thursday afternoon. Those with older children and teens were set to follow them on Friday, reaching a total of some 1,000 residents who were leaving the city for a week.
“The tension is very high and is affecting the children,” said Katar. “We therefore asked [Gaydamak] to take the children out now for a break from studies, for a holiday, and so on,” she said Thursday.
Now Gaydamak is being criticized by the Defense Minister, who is also a resident of Sderot, as well as by Knesset members who see the billionaire’s willingness to respond with largesse as a bid for political power.
Peretz told reporters late Thursday that it was not appropriate to “order the abandonment and flight from Sderot,” but said instead that the residents should be allowed to “take vacations in an organized fashion.”
Peretz, who himself is under fire for mismanagement of the recent war with Hizbullah terrorists in southern Lebanon, carped “The State of Israel won’t allow control by wealthy men and philanthropists over citizens’ troubles. We will prepare an organized program, carried out by the authorities’, to relieve the citizens.”
Peretz was joined by several Knesset members in condemning Gaydamak for his cooperation with the terrorized parents.
National Union – National Religious Party (NU-NRP) Knesset member Yitzhak Levy was one of several who balked at the move. “Evacuating the students is an imaginary solution intended to provide temporary relief for residents and to avoid dealing with the government’s failure in preventing the Kassams’ firing for good,” he said.
Levy’s colleague, NRP Knesset member Nissan Slomiansky said that Gaydamak’s willingness to send the children away for a short vacation was well-intended but misguided.
“His solution is the opposite of what needs to be done,” said Slomiansky. “The solution is fighting without compromises. Is Gaydamak capable of evacuating the children of Ashkelon and Ashdod tomorrow? Because the Kassams will ultimately reach everywhere.”
Slomiansky added, “A vacation in Eilat could be good only after the Kassam firing stops.”
The private evacuation raised ire among city officials as well as at the state government level. Politicians claimed the brief respite, which had not been officially coordinated with the municipality, did not serve the city’s interests.
One senior education official told a reporter from the Jerusalem Post that Sderot Mayor Eli Moyal had “made a policy decision not to send children out of Sderot and to have the work of calming the population take place inside the city.”