Israelis Move to Winnipeg to Escape Qassams

by Rhonda Spivak
Canadian Jewish News
January 28, 2009

http://www.jewishpolicycenter.org/719/israelis-move-to-winnipeg-to-escape-qassams

Israelis from southern Israel have immigrated to Winnipeg within the last year, in part, due to the trauma of living with ongoing rocket attacks launched by Hamas.

"One of the reasons we came here was because of the [deteriorating] security in the south of Israel," Felix Kavoushanski told The CJN. He immigrated from Ashkelon seven months ago.

"My daughter, who is seven, was in a state of panic when sirens went off all of the time in Ashkelon… We had 12 seconds from the time a siren went off to get into a shelter… Sometimes the siren wasn't working and it didn't go on at all."

Kavoushanski, whose parents are still in Ashkelon added, "When we got to Winnipeg, my daughter heard a siren one day from a fire engine. She said, ‘What's that, a Qassam?' We said, ‘No, there aren't any Qassams here.'"

Kavoushanski's wife, Victoria, who also has family in Ashkelon, said that the couple's friends in Ashkelon had been taking turns staying up all night so they would be alert when the time came to wake up their children to get them to a bomb shelter.

Vladislov Bogomolny, a computer programmer and his wife, Marisa Risman, a teacher, moved here just over half a year ago, with their two young children, also, in part to get out of the difficult security situation in Ashkelon.

"The real threat [of continuous Qassams] began one year ago, and people started to consider leaving Ashkelon to find a safer place," Bogomolny said. "Some moved to Ashdod, others to Tel Aviv… We considered safety reasons and decided to take a major step. If Israel had fought back earlier, maybe I wouldn't have had to leave."

Risman, whose mother is still in Ashkelon, said, "Some days there were sirens eight times a day… Children get very afraid about the Qassams. When the siren goes off, they begin to cry."

Eddie Zoruval, a recent immigrant to the city from Be'er Sheva, was a driver in the Israeli Defence Forces. "If I were in Israel now, I would have been fighting in Gaza," he said.

"I decided to leave Israel after the second war in Lebanon because the Israeli government wasn't doing enough to protect its citizens."

Zoruval said his parents, brother and his brother's family in Be'er Sheva have been frightened by the Grad missiles that have landed nearby.

"My brother's wife is nine months pregnant and looking after her three-year-old. They can't make it in time to the bomb shelter, so they just have stayed at home," he added.

Michael Cantor, a transport engineer, who moved to Winnipeg from Be'er Sheva in March 2008, said his parents in Be'er Sheva have been "a little bit afraid."

"We have talked about them coming here to live, if the security situation doesn't get better in the south of Israel," he said.

Moshe Kanevsky, an Israeli from Be'er Sheva who also moved here recently, said that although his family misses him, "they are glad I am here, and not in the shelters with them." He added that his parents, sister, brother and other family in Be'er Sheva are "afraid" of the missiles and his brother's children have undergone "trauma."

In the second week of Israel's offensive in Gaza, Kavoushanski, Cantor, and Kanevsky also shared their stories with CBC Radio One here, in an effort to explain what Israeli residents in the south of Israel have been undergoing as a result of Hamas attacks.

Cantor was interviewed by Margaux Watt on her show Up To Speed and Kanevsky was interviewed by Terry MacLeod on the program Information Radio.

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