Since my experience with the air raid sirens going off my second day in Israel, I have a new obsession: bomb shelters.
It is an easy obsession for me, because living in the Midwest has already led me to an obsession with tornado shelters. When we bought our house, I searched the basement for the ideal storm shelter: an area totally underground, no windows, close to a staircase (staircases are built extra strong) and nothing heavy overhead. I did not want to be sitting under a refrigerator.
So it was easy for me to transfer my intense concern about tornado shelters to the essential concern for a bomb shelter.
In Israel, most people live in apartment buildings. The old ones were not built with shelters. Instead, when the sirens go off, the people sit in their building’s staircases, which have no windows and reinforced concrete. A somewhat safe place to sit through a barrage of rockets or bombs. I am ‘lucky;’ my daughter’s apartment has a mamad, a room in her apartment built of extra thick walls, reinforced concrete, a special window which has a thick metal plate that slides across, and a thick metal door.
But what do you do when you are outside? My daughter took me on a walk to explain sheltering when outside. She suggested that I hide under an apartment building, as most have parking underneath.
She said, “Go to the north or west side of the house and take cover there. Those sides are safer.” She also told me to try the door. If it was unlocked, just go in. “What? To a building where I don’t know anyone?” “Of course,” she responded. “During a siren they want you to come in.”
In Israel, the government takes bomb shelters seriously. There are thousands throughout the country. This is definitely why, even though tens of thousands of rockets, drones, bombs and missiles have been launched towards Israel, tens of thousands of people have not been killed.
It’s just like in the Midwest, where our homes and public buildings have tornado shelters. Thus, even though we have many horrendous tornados, the death toll has gone down over the years.
After my daughter pointed out where to hide under a building, we walked two blocks to the shopping area nearby. In the back was the entrance to the shelter. It is near a staircase, in the center of the building. Bomb shelters are like tornado shelters in many ways.
As we continued on our walk along the streets and alleys of Holon, we walked through many small parks with playgrounds with bomb shelters located in the center. What I liked about the shelters is that the outsides are colorfully decorated. In Holon, I think the same artist decorated many of them.
I thought about how difficult it would be for children to stop playing to run into the shelter. But I thought back to when my children were young. They never argued when there was a tornado warning. When the sirens sounded, we all immediately went downstairs to the shelter. No discussion. No rebellion. Taking shelter was the immediate goal. Sometimes it was for 15 to 20 minutes, other times for an hour or more. But when it was over, life just resumed. I have to assume that children in Israel have the same response to a siren for a bomb attack as my children had for a tornado warning. Don’t argue, take shelter. But does life continue as before? I am not sure.
I do admit that not everyone takes shelter — sometimes, my husband would stand outside for a while and watch the weather. I have seen lots of videos of tornadoes heading towards someone’s home, until finally someone yells, “We need to go inside now.” In Israel, the same type of people stand outside and take videos of the Iron Dome rockets intercepting the missiles or bombs sent into Israel. I don’t quite understand this desire to watch in real time, but I do admit watching these videos myself.
There is one major difference between a tornado siren and an air raid siren: the intent. For a tornado, you have to watch out for the debris. For a rocket/missile, you have to watch out for the shrapnel. Similar, but not the same. Nature doesn’t take aim at your home because it hates you — it just is — while bombs falling around you are sent purposefully to kill you. That does change the dynamic of sheltering.
Although tornado shelters are here to stay, people should not have to have bomb shelters in their homes or their playgrounds. Humans cannot stop tornadoes, but they can stop bombing each other with intent to kill. It is time for it to end.
Ellen Portnoy has a master’s degree in journalism from the University of Missouri. She is an active community volunteer who has traveled to Israel many times.