No Longer Homeless: Sderot family rebuilds home

Seven months ago, Aliza Amar blasted off her wheelchair and slammed into her kitchen wall when a Qassam rocket exploded on her home. Because Aliza is wheelchair bound, she did not have the time to make it to a bomb shelter when the siren alarm sounded.

Aliza was hospitalized for four days and treated for shock and injury. Her husband, Pinchas, and their children, anxiously awaited her return home. When Aliza did return ‘home,’ it was to a motel room in Ashkelon where the Amar family had been temporarily relocated because the rocket devastation to their Sderot home rendered the house unlivable. The roof had caved in from the force of the rocket blast and destroyed the kitchen and severely damaged the living room.

This happened in December of last year.

Today, July 1, 2008, Aliza, whose son serves in the IDF, will actually get to see her home rebuilt after seven month of legal battles and bureaucratic complications with the Israeli government.

The family has been living in a small three-room apartment for the past several months since the motel in Ashkelon could no longer house them for free.

“It is a bitter-sweet moment for us,” Aliza said.. “On one hand, we are finally happy to know that our home is going to be rebuilt. But on the other hand we didn’t receive the full amount necessary for rebuilding the house.” The Israel Tax Authority agreed to provide the Amars with 300,000 NIS to rebuild their home, although the Amars estimate the cost is 600,000 NIS.

“Out of the 300,000 NIS, we will need to purchase new furniture to replace what was destroyed in the rocket explosion,” she continued. In addition, the Amars have already had to pay for their own lawyer and legal counsel in order to get the government to provide them with financial assistance.

“It took us a long time to reach an agreement with the Israel Tax Authority, but we finally reached some kind of compromise but it is more of a half-hearted compromise for us,” Aliza said..

In another twist, the Sderot municipality has not yet approved the financial rights necessary for the Amars to build a bomb shelter in their new home. The family will have to take out a loan from the bank in order to begin the building of the shelter.In any case, Aliza is happy to see some kind of closure to their seven-month ordeal. “It will take another four months to finish rebuilding the new house, but the time has come for us to move on, and the government has finally agreed to help us do so,” Aliza said.