Residents of Sderot announced recently that they would hold their own Independence Day celebrations five days before the major events planned in the rest of the country. Activists called on the public to join them in Sderot on May 2 to “celebrate, buy, dance, and sing.”
Ilan Cohen, a local activist who coordinates solidarity convoys to the city, explained that the alternative celebration was meant to bring the nation together. While the government spends NIS 130 million on fancy celebrations elsewhere, he said, residents of Sderot hope to connect to the people of Israel and look to the future together. “This is the only way to bring on a social revolution,” he said.
In the above video, Ilan Cohen and other local activists explain their plans for Independence Day.