Last update - 00:00 29/08/2007
Home Front chief says Sderot has enough fortified classrooms
By Barak Ravid and Zvi Zrahia, Haaretz Correspondents
The chief of the Home Front Command, Major General Yitzhak Gershon, told the cabinet on Wednesday that there is no shortage of reinforced classrooms in Sderot and other communities around Gaza Strip.
Gershon spoke at a security cabinet meeting on the level of preparation of the home front for emergency scenarios. "In terms of the protection of educational institutions, the school year can open as planned in Sderot and nearby towns without any problem." The school year is due to open on September 1.
Parents' groups in Sderot, however, claimed that Gershon was fiddling with numbers and threatened to go on strike unless their demand to reinforce every classroom throughout the town is met.
According to Gershon, there are 164 reinforced classrooms in Sderot, while only 133 are required. In other municipalities around Gaza, there are 200 reinforced classrooms, while 176 are required. He said that only two schools had to be prepared, but that those schools' students would either be moved to another school, or their classrooms would be fortified soon after the start of the school year.
Gershon said that huge sums of money have been invested in reinforcing nursery schools, and that 135 of 173 are now reinforced. An additional ten will be completely reinforced by September, and another 16 by January.
Sderot parents' groups claimed that these figures were inaccurate, since they did not include elective classrooms, like computer rooms, which are currently unprotected. In an emergency, they claimed, the children would have to move quickly from one place to another while putting their safety at risk. They also claimed that Gershon's figures include 27 shelters that are not fit for teaching.
A spokesperson for the Prime Minister's Office said that Home Front Command soldiers will accompany the region's children to and from school on their first days and will be present at schools during the day.
Deputy Defense Minister Matan Vilnai said during the meeting that the reinforcement of school bus stops in the region will commence shortly.
Meanwhile, Welfare Minister Isaac Herzog promised the State Control Committee on Wednesday that 2,800 public shelters and 3,300 private ones will be refurbished in the north of Israel by 2008. Herzog spoke at a cabinet meeting on implementing recommendations made in the State Comptroller's harsh report last month on deficiencies of home front preparedness for a state of emergency.
"Our country is laden with bureaucracy and lengthy litigation procedures, and things take time. The Defense Ministry is doing its utmost, at an impressive rate," Herzog said.
However, he admitted that "there is a problem with minority communities." The minister said that "the failures we witnessed during last year's Lebanon war have accumulated for years and years."
The Chairman of the Knesset's State Control Committee, MK Zvulun Orlev (National Religious Party), said that the report must be implemented immediately. "The State Comptroller's report is very bleak, and it exposes severe malfunctions on behalf of state authorities. This war highlighted that even civilian areas are inseparable from the front."