The phone call I received shook me to the core. Through tears, two National Insurance Institute workers from Sderot and Ashkelon described an unthinkable reality: 3,000 people struggling with post-trauma, with no one to treat them. While emergency resilience centers do vital work immediately after traumatic events, what follows is a disturbing void.
“Will they come to treatment centers in Jerusalem and Rishon Lezion?” I asked naively.
The answer was jarringly simple: “No.” How could people who struggle to leave their homes, who jump at every phone ring, who are paralyzed by anxiety, possibly make such a journey?
That’s when I realized – it’s time to turn the tables. Instead of expecting Negev residents to make the long, painful journey to central Israel, the center must come to them. This realization led us to establish a Feuerstein Institute branch in Sderot, which quickly filled to capacity. Soon, with support from the Montreal Federation, we’ll open another branch in Beersheba.
This isn’t enough. The disparities between central Israel and the periphery are staggering. The South has fewer than two doctors per thousand residents, while Tel Aviv has 2.5 times that number.
These aren’t mere statistics – they translate to a life expectancy that’s two and a half years lower. This is preventable human suffering. The education situation is equally shocking: Tel Aviv invests eight times more per student than Netivot. Is a child in the periphery worth less?
Two weeks ago, I stood in the ruins of Kibbutz Kfar Aza. Shachar, a kibbutz member who returned to live among the rubble with ten of his friends, said something that haunts me: “We’re not the ‘Gaza Envelope’ [as the region is known literally translated from Hebrew], we’re ‘Israel’s Envelope.’” How right he is. If not for the determination of Western Negev residents to remain on their land, we would have met Hamas terrorists deep inside Israel.
Supporting the South
I hear about grandiose plans to build treatment and rehabilitation towers in central Israel, and my heart aches. This isn’t the time to build magnificent towers in the affluent center. It’s time to transfer knowledge, resources, and services to the periphery. Every medical, rehabilitation, and educational institution must open branches in the Western Negev.
When I heard about the vision of a “Riviera” to be built in Gaza, I wondered cynically – will Negev residents relocate there? The time has come for real change. No more empty promises, no more drawer plans.
It’s time for central Israel to understand: Israel’s resilience depends on the strength of its periphery. If we don’t act now, immediately, we’ll lose not just the periphery – but our collective future.
Now, as Hamas terrorists plot their next move, and international pressure mounts, we must remember: the residents of Israel’s South are not just citizens needing help – they are our front line of defense.
Every shekel invested in their well-being, every professional we send to support them, strengthens not just the periphery, but Israel’s national resilience as a whole. This is our moral duty, and our strategic imperative.
The writer is president & CEO of the Feuerstein Institute.