MK Orlev: 'Sderot Yeshiva Students Require Protection, Too'

MK Zevulun Orlev (NU-NRP) accused the government Wednesday of discriminating against 500 yeshiva students in Sderot by not providing them with proper fortification against rockets. Orlev, chairman of the Knesset State Control Committee, made the statements in a hearing called to assess the state of building fortifications in the areas around Gaza.

"I won't allow the students to be jeopardized just because they study at a yeshiva and not a college," said Orlev at the hearing, suggesting that students at the nearby Sapir College are better fortified against rocket attacks.

Orlev noted that while students at Sapir College only come there to study during the day, the students at the Yeshivat Hesder of Sderot live on campus, making the discrimination he alleges even more severe. He said that he will take the issue to a wider audience, including the Ministers of Defense and Housing.

Orlev promised to meet with Defense Minister Ehud Barak and Housing Minister Ze'ev Boim to resolve a discrepancy, recently revealed, between their two offices with respect to funding for fortification of the yeshiva’s dormitories.



"The yeshiva has existed in Sderot for 14 years, and the dormitories are vulnerable. It is a miracle they haven't yet been hit directly," Orlev added.

Shlomo Kustiner, a representative of the yeshiva, charged at the hearing that its students have “been overlooked” by the government. To demonstrate his point, he displayed a letter from the Deputy Defense Minister’s Office to General Chaim Fialkoff, Housing Ministry Director-General, asking Fialkoff to include the yeshiva in Sderot’s city-wide fortification initiative.

"The government allotted NIS 327 million (roughly $100 million) to the project and we are supposed to be included in it," Kustiner said. The request for fortifications for Sderot was the result of recommendations made by the Home Front Command based on its inspection of the Gaza area.

The Housing Ministry Director-General said in a written response that the yeshiva, which currently houses its students in caravans, plans to build permanent housing for them. Therefore, wrote Fialkoff, the additional government fortification assistance will not apply to the new buildings, which are expected to be constructed with built-in fortifications.

As chairman of the State Control Committee, Orlev is able to issue subpoenas to Knesset Members who fail to appear, thus requiring both Ministers Barak and Boim to accept the summons.