Sderot Mayor David Buskila greeted Prime Minister Ehud Olmert with criticism on Tuesday as Olmert visited the rocket-battered city. “The government must not accept a situation in which children live in fear for eight years,” he said. “This is unbearable.”
Buskila called on Olmert to provide tangible assistance to residents of the city. “Over the long years of Kassam attacks, many infrastructures have been hit—sidewalks, roads, public parks—with no compensation from the government,” he said. He called on Olmert to reduce income and municipal tax for Sderot residents, saying, “It's the least the government can do.”
Olmert said he would investigate the matter of government compensation for damage to municipal property in rocket attacks. He complimented Buskila for “saying tough things in a respectful way.”
During his trip to Sderot, Olmert visited schoolchildren. “I think about you a lot and I love you,” Olmert told the students. “I hope you'll have quiet, and I promise to make it happen.”
One of the students who greeted Olmert was fourth-grader Or'el Levi, who has wanted to meet Olmert for years in order to tell him about life in Sderot. Levi read aloud a letter she had written aloud to Olmert. Her letter reads as follows:
To the Prime Minister of Israel, Ehud Olmert,
Hello Prime Minister, I wanted to tell you about the security situation, I suffer a lot because of the Kassams and it's hard to live like this. What helps us a lot and strengthens us is prayer and faith in G-d, when we pray G-d makes miracles, and the Kassams fall in open areas.
When I walk to school in the morning I'm afraid that “Color Red” [Sderot's rocket warning system—ed.] will catch me on the way. When I study, I hear “Color Red” and I think, “Where did it fall? Where are my father and mother, what's happening to my siblings?" Then I say “Shir HaMaalot” [one of the 'Songs of Ascents from Psalms—ed.] and feel much safer.
I love to learn in school, my school is fortified against attacks and whoever needs help and support knows he has someone to go to.
I want to tell you Prime Minister that the Kassams make a scary noise, my legs tremble a lot and my heart beats hard. After each Kassam we go back to learning and keep on going like nothing happened, because that's our reality.
That's how we live, we'll continue to pray and G-d will help us with our lives. This is our routine and with G-d's help we will deal with our fears with help from the teachers and our families and everyone who loves us. Prime Minister help us, it's hard for us, please help us live like every other child in the country.