MONDAY, JULY 21, 2014
PAGE 6
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
COMMENTARY
'I feel safe': What daily life is like in Tel Aviv
Imagine strolling down Jayhawk Boulevard on a perfect fall afternoon. You hear a piercing siren and you know a rocket is on its way. You have one minute and 30 seconds to get to cover. Life would stop.
I am spending three months in Tel Aviv, Israel, this summer working as a graphic design intern for a company called GamyTech, an online-gaming platform. During this period, conflict OR fighting has broken out between Hamas and Israel.
Once or twice a day, every single day for the past two and a half weeks, I have had to take cover in a shelter. At first, I was scared to be living in a war zone. Then I learned in Israel this is just a normal part of life.
prehension. Yet I am living here now, and this is my small window into the fight that affects millions of people.
The sirens stopped. There was silence for a brief moment. Then, Boom! Boom! Boom!
The first time I experienced rockets launched at Tel Aviv—a town of 3,464,100, which is about the size of Los Angeles—was an evening during the work week. I was with a few friends in an apartment. The sirens sounded and my heart pounded. We rushed to the bomb shelter, which each building in Israel is required to have.
BEN LIPOWITZ/KANSAN
The building shook. Luckily those rockets weren't hitting the ground and causing damage, but being intercepted by the Iron Dome, an Israeli-designed air defense system. Because of the Iron Dome, life is able to move on as usual.
My understanding of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict is a limited one. The roots of this conflict go far beyond my understanding and com
People gather in a safe room during an air-raid warning on July 9 in Tel Aviv, Israel. The Israeli government says the Iron Dome has intercepted 90 percent of the rockets it has targeted during Operation Protective Edge.
I had the chance to return to America during this time, but I decided to stay in Tel Aviv. I feel safe. Sure, I was scared early on, and I thought my life was in danger, but after going out in public and seeing every Israeli carrying on with their normal lives, I felt better.
I learned to feel more safe when I was in public for the first time during an attack. Once I heard the roaring sound of the siren, I immediately got up out of my seat, searching for the
nearest bomb shelter. As I looked around downtown Tel Aviv in panic, I saw everyone taking their time getting to the shelter with zero anxiety,
almost as if they were more relaxed than ever. Some even looked like they had no intention of even going to a shelter. Even young children were as calm as they were a minute before.
It's become a normal concept for people in this region that they could become casualties of a deeply-rooted conflict that seems to have no end, just periods of relief. It's normal to see rockets fly over their heads and explode making a sound so loud that it shakes every building in the city. It's normal to hear about and physically see the attempts to destroy their communities. I've had to accept that this is a part of my daily life in Israel.
On Friday, I was sitting by the beach looking out at the beautiful Tel Aviv skyline with a few friends when we suddenly saw five long paths of smoke soar in the air above us. After a few seconds we could feel, hear and see the five different explosions. With no conscious fear, we continued with our day and had a nice dinner overlooking the Mediterranean Sea.
This trip has put a lot of things in perspective for me about life. We are lucky that we are able to walk down beautiful Jayhawk Boulevard every day, and our greatest worry is whether or not we'll get to class on time.
Edited by Kaitlyn Klein
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