“The State of Israel has lost its dignity. Yes, countries have dignity too. Any country that allows its sovereignty to be violated 50 times a day will eventually wither and fall,” Sderot mayor Eli Moyal says Tuesday at a small protest tent he has established in a corner of Rabin Square in Tel-Aviv. The tent, a collection of posters, Kassam rockets, about two volunteers and a sound system blaring out home grown Sderot rap songs, moved to Tel-Aviv this week after spending a week outside the Prime Minister’s Office in Jerusalem. Moyal says the reason to bring the tent, part of the protest against the “government’s inability to either make peace or war”, to Tel-Aviv is to further get under the skin of Israelis living in the big city, not aware of the daily hell in the periphery town of Sderot. But, apart from a trickle of visitors who walk into the tent and sign a petition of solidarity with the people of Sderot, most Tel-Avivians were doing what Tel-Avivians do best: jauntily going about their business. One businessman in a nearby photography store says he just came out of the country club with its Jacuzzi and swimming pool. “A bubble within a bubble,” as one observer points out. “We’ve been in the hearts of people for a long time now and I have never met a single person who is not sympathetic to us,” Moyal tells The Jerusalem Post outside the tent. Not everyone is apathetic however, as many of the adjoining restaurants bring free food to the few volunteers manning the tent. Moyal admits that the protests, while managing to keep Sderot in the headlines, will not serve the ultimate goal of stopping the Kassams. Continue reading →