By Ulla Hadar

SHA’AR HANEGEV, Israel–Many ecologically-motivated students from the Sha’ar Hanegev High School demonstrated last week against plans to build an additional coal power station in Ashkelon. The demonstration took place at Sapir College where a conference was going on to examine social relationships in the neighboring city of Sderot.

Attending the conference and symphatizing with the demonstraters were several delegates from the Ministry of Internal Affairs.  These delegates were: Nitzan Horowitz, Arie Bibi, Eitan Chevel and Shai Hermesh (former mayor of Shaar Hanegev municipality).

Racheli Feinstein, director of environmental studies at the Shaar Hanegev High School, said “As part of our environmental studies at the High School, it is extremely important that our students are exposed to the planning going on in our area, plans that will have an impact on their  future as well as ours.We want our students to become motivated, active, caring and responsible citizens in their future lives.”

The coal power stations are the major pollution factors in Israel today. The addition of the coal power station in Ashkelon will raise the level of pollution for another quarter of a million citizens situated in the Northern Negev, the area surrounding Gaza and Ashkelon.
 
Joint studies executed by the Brazilai hospital and the Ministry of Health have shown a significant increase in citizens arriving at the ER with breathing difficulties.

The decision to build the coal power station was taken by the government in 2002 as an attempt to cover the future demand for electricity.

Although technology has advanced and more ecological and clean solutions exist to create electricity, the government has taken no steps in reevaluating its decision to build the power station.

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Hadar is Sha’ar Hanegev bureau chief for San Diego Jewish World

During the winter and spring I am occupied with making a documentary film. The main character of the film, Arthur, is a young Jew who fled together with his family from war in Tajikistan to safety in the USA. Because his family had lived under Soviet Union’s atheistic rule for many years, it resulted in a rather secularized way of life. The film is an investigation of how this young Jew connects with his historical roots and traditions, as he in January this year, traveled to Israel for the very first time in his life. I followed him for this 10-days trip to Israel to document his experiences. The trip was in the Birthright Israel-program or Taglit, which is the Hebrew name for it. The experiences the main character had during this trip profoundly changed his perception of being a Jew, the state of Israel and the concept of Zionism.

For the pre-production i I was twice to New York prior to the trip. I went there a third time after the trip in order to make some conclusive interviews. But most of the material was shot in Israel. In Israel, I was fortunate to be assisted with an Israeli filmmaker, David Moran, a graduate from Sapir College. He also brought his own equipment, so we were able to use two cameras to shoot the film. I had a Sony HVR-Z7 and David used his Sony HVR-V1. Of course, we shot the film in HD-format.

Right now I have finished the transcript of all the interviews that were made during and after the trip. The next step is to make a paper edit. Once that is completed, I will start making a first rough cut using Sony Vegas non-linear editing software. Hopefully, I will have a rough-cut ready in the beginning of March. In order for me to graduate from Regent University, the film has to be completed by the end of March, so there’s not that much of time for fine tuning the project.

My latest report from France 24:

After 22 days of war that left scores of people dead and injured, Israel and Hamas have both declared a ceasefire. Was so much bloodshed necessary to reach an end to the hostilities? The Israeli response, given the dire threat that it faces, has been affirmative. Yet many across the world are not convinced: With over 1200 Palestinian dead (including many civilians), a lot of people believe that Israel used disproportionate and excessive force.

In an effort to show the world the seriousness of the Israeli perspective, two students from a school in the south of Israel created an artistic project illustrating the daily lives of those living under target of Hamas rockets in southern Israel. The project is entitled, “Distance Is Only A Matter of Time” and culminates with a controversial film (also aimed at apathetic Israelis) that simulates a rocket being launched in Gaza and hitting Tel-Aviv.

To read Observer commentary from the makers of the film, as well as a critical rejoinder by Lisa Goldman, click here. You can also read a defense of Tel-Aviv by Yair Lapid here.

The South International Film Festival or Festival Kolnoa Darom, as it is named in Hebrew, was arranged in Sderot, June 1-5, 2008. In midst of my work around in the area, I had the pleasure to attend the festival. I watched two of the student films and Waltz with Bashir, a feature length animation movie. The film was also nominated to the Gold Palm in Cannes last month. Written and directed by Ari Folman, I found the artistic work extremely well done. The film itself can be considered an expression of dealing with the trauma and possibly guilt of the Lebanon war. I also watched the documentary Lullaby, a graduate film, directed by Natalie Haziza. It was a humorous, touching, and personal exploration of her childhood, being raised by two mothers.

The South International Film Festival is a testimony of the pioneering Jewish spirit that built Israel and made the desert blossom. Despite 7000 kassams, the Israelis are not giving in to the goal of their enemies who want to drive them away from the region. It was such an example of dedication to their heritage of the land that they are arranging this festival for the 7^th time in Sderot. Behind the festival is the Sapir College, a college in the adjacent Shaar HaNegev region. The college has also been under attacks from the kassams. In fact, one of their students Roni Yechiah, was killed on the campus’ parking lot three months ago.

Haim Watzman

Sderot was celebrating yesterday–it’s been celebrating all week, in fact. Who cares about the missiles coming over from Gaza when you can catch a good flick–lots of them? The Cinema South Festival, held in Sderot each year under the sponsorship of the film school at adjacent Sapir College, is one of the most stimulating, and heart-warming cultural events on Israel’s calendar.

The day’s only Red Alert happened just as we emerged from our rental car next to the housing project where my daughter, Mizmor (finishing up her first year in the animation program) lives. We scurried to safety–well, it’s all relative–under one of the building’s outdoor stairwells until, seconds later, we heard a distant boom.

After dropping off some home-cooked food in her apartment, we drove over to the Sderot Cinematecque. The festival was in full swing. “South” here doesn’t mean Alabama and Georgia-it means Israel’s poor, forgotten, and bombarded Negev region. Sapir students were quaffing beers and muching on sandwiches and sticky sweets while a Kerala band played songs that sent my wife Ilana-whose late father grew up in Bombay, after his family moved there from Baghdad-into dreamy nostalgia.

Kerala? This year’s festival matched up Israel’s south with India’s south. Keralan director Adoor Gopalakrishnan was on hand for the screening of three of his films. After coffee and sandwiches–I didn’t touch the free Indian sweets since, unfortunately, I was a bit doubtful about their kashrut–we went inside to see Golpalakrishnan’s Shadow Kill  (which I’ll write more about later this week).

The announcement before the film was: “If there is a Red Alert, stay in your places. The screening will continue.”

In his remarks after the film, Golpalakrishnan praised the student films screened that afternoon (we’d planned to catch them, but a flat tire and subsequent complications delayed us). He was particularly surprised and gratified, he said, to see that students were making humorous films under fire.

honestreporting Media BackSpin, 12. März 2008

Ein Redakteur der Studentenzeitung The Rebel Yell an der University of Las Vegas (UNLV) „interpretiert“ das Merkaz-Massaker als „Gewaltspirale“, die durch Israel befeuert wurde.

Man sollte meinen, dass ein Kommilitone wenigstens einen Hauch von Mitgefühl für die trauernde Hochschule von Mercaz HaRav und das Sapir-Kollege in Sderot aufbringen würde.

By: John Keitel

The Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs reports “Over 90 rockets have been launched at southern Israel since Thursday (28 Feb 2008), with Grad and Kassam rockets targeting Ashkelon, Negev, and Sderot.”

One student at Sapir college was killed when the rocket landed on the college.

The daily rocket attacks usually begin at 8:30 a.m. in order to target Israeli children on the way to school and their parents going to work.

Israel continues diesel fuel deliveries, while Gaza gas stations refuse delivery. They want gasoline instead.

Diesel fuel is used in most trucks and cab in Gaza, the Middle East and Israel. Also most private and commercial generators use diesel.

Egypt has sealed off it boarder and stopped deliveries of supplies with Gaza since Hamas terrorist gained control in June 2007.

The New York Times reported Feb., 29, 2008 that, “Thousands of these rockets have been fired at Israel over the past seven years. ” But they show a dead Palestinian child being buried with his bloody head showing. This is inciting the public sentiment by its imbalanced biased coverage.

Where is the coverage of where the rockets are landing, causing terror, destruction, death, and wounding of the Jewish citizens?

The worlds liberally biased United Nations and media outlets continue to rail against and condemn Israel when she defends herself from the daily attacks on their cities. Israel continually shows restraint and does not respond to each attack.

Hamas continually uses their citizens as shields for the storage of rockets, weapons, and ammunition. Hamas also uses civilian locations, schools and homes, along with children to launch rockets and fight against Israeli soldiers. This is so they can claim civilians, including children, are being killed by Israel.

Israel has and continues to show restraint after being attacked daily. The following statistics from the Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs proves the Israelis are justified in protecting their citizens from the heinous daily attacks by Hamas:

• Statistics of Kassam rocket and mortar fire from the Gaza Strip

Since the Hamas took over the Gaza Strip in mid-June 2007 until 26 February 2008, 838 rockets and 937 mortar bombs have been fired at Sderot and the western Negev.

Monthly distribution of identified rocket hits

Monthly distribution of identified mortar shell hits

Rocket Fire Statistics, 2008
Source: Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center at the Israel Intelligence Heritage & Commemoration Center (IICC

Over 40 rockets were launched at Israel yesterday from Gaza. One of them hit Sapir College and killed a student, Roni Yechiah, a father of four who underwent kidney transplant surgery several years ago. Several more were treated for wounds.

Earlier yesterday, a rocket hit a poultry factory and later a rocket fell just outside of a Carlsberg beer factory. Several rockets also landed in Ashkelon, one of them landing near a hospital’s helicopter pad.

Hamas – yes, yes, Palestinian government Hamas – claimed responsibility for Wednesday’s attacks.

My cousin studies at Sapir, as did several of my friends from the TV industry. This isn’t the first time the college has been hit, and unless something (and again, I have no idea what it would be) is done, it will most likely happen again.

What makes me happy, for lack of a better word, is to see that Olmert has not ruled out talks with the Palestinians, even though it’s their government, essentially, that has been carrying out these attacks on innocent civilians. At least he says so, since we don’t really see anything happening.

Accoring to Ynet, defense officials who spoke to PM Olmert, who was in Japan, believed that the barrages were in response for the targeting of Hamas gunmen en route to carry out a terrorist attack on Tuesday.

Makes perfect sense to me. “Let us blow up your people, or we’ll launch rockets at them.”

Here’s the problem, as I see it: Israel can only wait so long and take so much until it retaliates and enters Gaza full force. That will, of course cause war. So this is either a war on the southern part of the country or on the entire one. Without taking political sides, this is such a Catch 22. Everyone does things “in retaliation,” and things never end, except I honestly think that even when Israel tries to stop – with all due respect, it’s been a LONG time since we did anything big – we are still being provoked, and you can only provoke for so long.