"There's place for us to build a paradise!"

Interviewer: Do you approve of what your government is doing to try and stop those attacks on Ashkelon?

Ruth: Look, look. "Approve"? We had no choice, my dear! We in Ashkelon have been having these air raids over two weeks; just two weeks. But in Sderot they've been having them for eight years. It's impossible! You can't continue your life like that. All the schools in Ashkelon are closed, kindergartens are closed, businesses are closed, all cultural activities and sport activities are disrupted. So, I mean, how much can you take? How much can you take?!

I am certainly not for casualties, you know, but they put the children in places...if it's a two-floor house: on the ground floor are the armed men who are sending the rockets, and on the second floor are the families, so how can...or in the inside rooms. It's impossible!

Even if Hamas is doing that, do you think the Israeli government, in the long term, has to find another way because for whatever reason it can't keep...

Of course! There is no doubt about it, my dear! We are the first...I want them as my neighbours. They are my neighbours! I want them to build a state of their own. I'm all for it. But I don't want to be thrown into the sea because I'm not leaving! This is my homeland.

You know I'm British; I have British nationality as well, because my mother was born in England; my father was British. And I have an Israeli nationality. But this is my homeland, and I want and I intend and we all intend to stay here.

Let them build their own state, by all means! Put all the resources and energy into building all what is necessary. Education, health, name it! They've got so much money. Not in destruction! These people, the Hamas people, terrorize their own people, let alone us.

What do you think, Ruth, of the worldwide protests against the attacks on Gaza?

Well, because people don't know the situation here. You have to be on the spot to see what we are undergoing. I have an English journalist staying now with me overnight from the Daily Telegraph. She's been traveling around Sderot. If you want, you can have a word with her and ask what her impressions are.

It's OK. We'll stick with you, Ruth.

I'm joking, but I'm saying one has to be on the spot. You can't condemn us without seeing what our settlements and towns have been undergoing for the last eight years. And what about the suicide bombs before that?

Can I ask you, finally, Ruth: are you afraid, living in Ashkelon?

Am I afraid? No, certainly! I was in England all throughout the blitz! I'm not. No, I'm not afraid at all. It's not pleasant. It's very unpleasant. Understatement, right? I hate the sirens, and then you have to wait to hear the fall, and then you don't know who was hurt. You know? Whether a house was hurt, or people were hurt.

No, and I was born in this part of the world. I have a Palestinian birth certificate, so I feel a great affinity with my friends across the borders: my brothers, my cousins. We have a similar language and a similar mentality, and there's place for us to build a paradise!


-excerpts from an interview with Ruth Yashin, 86-year-old resident of Ashkelon, on the BBC (13/01/2009)