Last update - 00:00 10/02/2008
Trade Min. orders recruitment of workers to Sderot vital services
By Haaretz Service
Industry, Trade and Labor Minister Eli Yishai on Sunday signed an injunction permitting the emergency recruitment of workers in Sderot who are vital to their line of business in the city's public sector.
Yishai approved the use of court orders following his meeting with Defense Minister Ehud Barak, and based on security assessments according to which the situation in the rocket-stricken Negev town could deteriorate in the near future and necessitate the recruitment of absentee workers.
The injunction allows the government to recruit workers in such sectors as health, welfare, communication, water, electricity, postal services and food providers.
It is also binding for workers who live outside of Sderot but who are required to provide essential services for the southern town, such as medical equipment repair.
Hundreds of Sderot residents protest Qassam barrage
Earlier Sunday, some 300 Sderot residents and their supporters demonstrated in Jerusalem following a Qassam rocket strike on the city, which left two brothers, aged 8 and 19, seriously wounded. Several of the demonstrators briefly clashed with police forces at the scene.
The demonstrators, including several right-winged extremists, blocked major traffic arteries on the Jerusalem-Tel Aviv highway and later demonstrated across from the Prime Minister's Office.
The protesters, who were calling on Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to resign, held up remains of exploded Qassam rockets that had struck southern communities. Some of the protesters were said to have hurled stones at police officers and to have tried to break the entrance gates of the Prime Minister's Office, before being dispersed by the police.
No injuries were reported in the incident.
Sderot residents also called on Defense Minster Ehud Barak to resign in the wake of the ongoing Qassam rocket fire on their city and neighboring communities.
The calls were made by city residents present at a meeting between the visiting Barak, his deputy Matan Vilnai, and Sderot Mayor Eli Moyal.
Barak vowed to continue efforts to put an end to the Qassam fire, and added that the IDF is carrying out various operations in the Gaza Strip, some of them secret, in attempts to stop the rocket fire
"We will continue to attack with all available means," Barak said. But angry residents seeking a large-scale military assault on Gaza militants accused the defense minister of neglecting them.
"Go home. Why did you bother coming?" one resident shouted.
On Saturday evening, following the Qassam strike that wounded the two brothers, Sderot residents blocked entrances to the town and burned tires in protest of the deteriorating security situation, demanding a major offensive in Gaza.
Later Saturday, residents drove in a procession of vehicles to Tel Aviv, in order to demonstrate across from Barak's residence. Police, however, dispersed the procession when it reached Ashkelon Junction, and the demonstrators returned to Sderot to protest there.
Moyal said he intended to set up a protest tent across from Olmert's home, calling on the prime minister to let residents "live in peace in Sderot."
On Sunday, the school attended by Osher and Rami Twito, the brothers that were wounded in Saturday's Qassam strike, recorded an attendance rate of a mere 68 percent. This rate was lower than the attendance even on the days of the heaviest Qassam barrages. According to school principal Hannah Moyal, most of the students didn't show up for class because their families had left town.
Sderot teachers opened Sunday's school day with a discussion of the situation in the city. The superintendent and the head of the city's social services arrived at the city's schools Sunday morning to discuss the previous day's attack with teachers and students.
The average attendance at other Sderot schools was approximately 80 percent.
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