This is who we Israelis are. Think whatever you want, but this is us.

I cannot count how many times I have been told that Israel teaches its children to hate Arabs. And then the area that has seen more missiles, whether propelled by fuel or by wind, than any other place in Israel goes and does THIS (original Hebrew article):

The Children of Sderot respond to Terror with a big and colourful Kite Event

Dozens of kites will fill the skies over the City of Sderot on Monday and will colour them with optimistic colours. Sderot Mayor Alon Davidi: “Our children are busy with positive activities; for us, these will be kites of life and not kites of death. We are also calling on the children of Gaza to play and not to be dragged into terrorist acts.”

On Monday, June 11, beginning at 5 pm, the City of Sderot, together with Mall 7 Shopping Center in Sderot, will be having a kite workshop (“Afifoniada” – kite is afifon in Hebrew) for the children of Sderot and nearby communities. During the event, children will hear stories, legends and interesting facts about the development of the kite. Afterward, each child will build his or her own kite, onto which they will write a personal message (such as: hope, renewal, building and security). At the end of the workshop, the children will fly the kites they made and create a spectacular “afifoniada” of positive messages.

“We are excited to be able to provide the children of our region with a kind of corrective experience,” said the Director of Mall 7 in Sderot, Assi Bergel-Uzan. “I am sure that the event will help change the current association the children have toward kites from something negative to something positive, as it should have been from the beginning.” “I want to thank the Sderot municipality for their quick participation in setting up the event and for proving to the children of Sderot that they are top priority,” added Marketing Director, Nofit Cohen. “I am sure that the cooperation between us for the sake of the children in the city will continue.”

Sderot Mayor, Alon Davidi: “In contrast with our neighbours in Gaza who turned the beautiful hobby of kiting into a terrorist act, with huge agricultural damages, the children of Sderot and the region are returning the kites to their original form – from making them to sending them soaring into the skies with the hope that they will not fall. We deal with positive acts and optimism and the wish that our children will always be happy. I call out to the children of Gaza to play with the kites that they make and not to be sucked up by agents of terror – for us these are kites of life and not of death.”

That is my translation of an article published earlier today on the Hebrew website rotter.net.

So we can see that kites in Gaza went from being this:

4 years ago the children of #Gaza set the GWR by flying the most #kites simultaneously. #Play is a #children #right pic.twitter.com/iTrspsfufr

— YaLa-Young Leaders (@YaLa_YL) September 15, 2015

to being this:

and this:

And now Sderot is taking back the kite.