As Goldstone sleeps, Sderot dreams of a safe, new year!

Dear Friends of Sderot Media Center,

Sderot Media Center Impacts Global Media with Response to Goldstone Report

Sderot Media Center’s director, Noam Bedein, who testified before the Goldstone Commission in Geneva this past July, blasted the UN Commision’s report , calling it a ‘sham’ which served to legitimize acts of terror committed against Israel by terror-organizations like Hamas. International news outlets that carried Sderot Media Center’s press release in response to the UN report included China , India , Japan , Ireland , Thailand and South Africa . Israel’s Jerusalem Post, Israel National News, Israel Radio, YNet News and Ha’aretz also carried Bedein’s response.

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As Sderot and Negev residents enter their ninth year of life under the threat and fire of Gaza rockets, Sderot Media Center is preparing to meet those upcoming challenges. The financial struggles of the past year have not deterred SMC from conducting an intense awareness campaign successfully placing Sderot on the international map.

The information services of Sderot Media Center were internationally recognized when the United Nations Fact Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict requested that the center provide a full-length report explaining the impact of rockets on Israelis in Sderot and the south. I had the opportunity to speak before the UN commission in Geneva on behalf of Sderot this past June.

SMC representatives have toured Capitol Hill, Australia, Manitoba, Norway, England, and the US college campuses, Jewish and Christian communities, providing world audiences with accounts and media documentation of Sderot life. In the past year, SMC has hosted the British Ambassador to Israel, US governors and congressmen, parliamentarians, diplomats and other official policy-makers as well as an array of international media.

This begs the question: When most of the world knows about the situation in Sderot, what makes Sderot Media Center’s work so important at this time?

The recent ‘Gaza War’ has affected the entire world, with multi-million dollar media campaigns and PR invested in portraying the scenes in Gaza. Almost every Jewish community in the world saw massive demonstrations against Israel during and after Operation Cast Lead. This imbalance of media coverage has naturally given more legitimacy for Hamas, which has become a ‘household’ word internationally. This sort of legitimacy for terrorism and terrorist leaders poses a dangerous threat to regional peace and to the Jewish state’s existence.

Sderot Media Center is the only information source daily counterbalancing the Gaza narrative with the human story of Sderot and southern Israel. During the relative calm of the ceasefire, thousands of Sderot residents are still reeling from the post-traumatic effects and economic devastation brought on by years of rocket attacks.

SMC has developed a model to share the voices of local residents and expose the psychological impact of rocket terror on civilians. Two SMC projects for the coming year were conceived to more effectively present the Israeli perspective of the Gaza conflict.

1. Sderot Community Treatment Theater
2. Sderot Media’s Information Center

At Sderot Media Center, we would like to thank you for your generous support and your continuing belief in our work.

May this New Year bring peace and security to the residents of Sderot and all of Israel.

Shana Tova,

Noam Bedein, SMC Director