July 27, 2006, Adamit
Nahariya is a city of 56,000 people situated on the Mediterranean coast about ten kilometers south of the Lebanese border. I think it is one of Israel's nicer towns. It is a tourist town, mostly Israeli tourists but it also has industry including a factory that was recently sold (85%) to Warren Buffet for a measly 4+ billion US dollars. Today Nahariya is a ghost town, empty of almost all of its residents. As I walked along the Ga'aton Blvd, the city's main drag, I passed coffee shops and restaurants, a book store, a department store, banks, a jeweler, an optometrist and every place was closed. It would be faster to describe what was open, only three businesses that I saw. I was in Nahariya today, working as a translator for a journalist. He wanted my assistance to show him how the city is managing and to translate. I arrived in Nahariya before the journalist and went to a shelter in the middle of town. I wanted to locate people, living in a shelter, that would be willing to talk to a journalist. Nahariya has many apartment buildings, some of them only four stories high and many are ten or twelve stories. I expected to find the shelter chock full of families even if many people had left town. I would not have been surprised to find the shelter in a mess, steamy in the midsummer heat and humidity with people arguing amongst themselves about who can do what or what channel to watch on the sole television. I found one family, the Malka family, in one of Nahariya's central shelters. To clarify: This does not mean that some people are living in their apartments while one family is using the shelter. No. There is only one family in all of the apartments behind the Hamashbir Department Store in the center of town. The buildings are empty. In front of shopping areas there is an unarmed security guard. He is there to prevent looting but that does not appear to be a major problem. The father, Aharon Malka talks about how he will not leave Nahariya. They are not a poor family and probably could find a place to go to but they favor staying and have for two weeks. The tension is beginning to show. Aviv, is there 12 year old daughter. Her Bat Mitzvah is in another two weeks. Invitations have been sent out and she is expecting two hundred guests. For two weeks she has not seen any one her age. The Malka family is also frightened. They have every reason to be afraid. Walking around their shelter I saw the destruction created by Katusha rockets that have landed nearby. They are to be seen everywhere, on Ga'aton, on Herzl, on Mayesdim streets, everywhere. Windows and shutters are broken. Buildings, cars and roads are burnt and pockmarked by shrapnel. Later in the day I heard a cynical Nahariya resident proclaiming, “We are the champions! More Katusha rockets have hit Nahariya than any other city in Israel”. Nahariya is on the map, Nasralla's map. The official number is 254 rockets have hit the city in the last two weeks. Yaffa Malka, the mother described how they shower at home, at a time of day that is considered safe. The shower is quick and each member of the family goes alone. They don't want a Katusha do destroy the entire family. We talked in the shade of a tree just by the entrance to the shelter. It was midday Wednesday and we did not see another soul wandering around. They invited us downstairs to view the shelter. It is very compact, spotless and there is an air-conditioner. Without an air-conditioner the heat would have been insufferable. We met another of the shelter's residents, Manny, the Malka family's green parrot. He had been left in their apartment but Manny was afraid by himself and Aharon decided to bring him to the shelter. On Ga'aton Street we saw one coffee shop open for business as usual. It is shop that sells lottery tickets and drinks and there were several customers sitting outside. Makes sense that customers that buy lottery tickets (based on the results of football games) would gamble on their chances of being maimed by a Katusha. It turned out that half of the customers were journalists, like my employer, that were in Nahariya to cover the events happening here. The Carlton Hotel is Nahariya's fanciest hotels. It has 220 rooms and new owners that spent 17 million shekels in repairs and renovations and started to operate the hotel three months ago. It looks like a five star hotel should. The Carlton is empty save for a few journalists. The lower level of the hotel is a fancy hall for weddings and other celebrations. The manager showed us that young volunteers are occupying the hall. They have come to help people that are living in shelters. Some are soldiers and most are young people before or after their army service. The picture of young volunteers with bloated backpacks and mattresses spread around the hall is incongruous in a fancy hotel. On the other hand, what is appropriate in today's Nahariya? The manager took us into a side room where there was a huge safe in the middle of the room. In a young couple's wildest fantasies this safe is huge, if it is intended for wedding gifts. It turns out that the Discount Bank will be reopening in the Carlton Hotel's basement to provide banking services for the people of Nahariya. Our next stop was to city hall where people were busy. We saw many of the young volunteers there. Many of them are from the West Bank, young Israeli's that are orthodox and serve in the army. Their driver who takes them from one shelter to another is a Beduin from the village next door to my kibbutz. Nahariya will remain a ghost town for the next week or so. No one can tell for how long. Perhaps till school opens on September 3 rd . Probably people will return before then. What will happen to businesses and industries? They are already losing customers that are scrambling to find other suppliers elsewhere. The futures of Nahariya and Nasralla are connected one to the other. Let's hope that only one will soon go out of business for good..
Dan Kohn, Kibbutz Adamit