As a frequent visitor to Israel I like to think I know my way around. Heading north through Herzliya or east to Jerusalem is to pass through familiar territory. South of Tel Aviv is another matter entirely. But getting to Sderot from Tel Aviv turns out to be an easy drive down Highway 4, passing signs to the coastal cities of Ashdod and Ashkelon before swinging inland along the 34, with Gaza on the right and Sderot on the left. No more than an hour’s drive in the rented Fiat. The turn for Sderot is attractive, marked with wide tree-lined roads and neatly trimmed borders, until the landscape reveals 1970s architecture and empty lots, and eventually Ha’histadrut Street where I am to meet Noam Bedein, the Sderot media centre’s young director.

Sderot has had more than its fair share of distinguished visitors. In July 2008 Senator Obama interrupted his Presidential campaign with a brief visit to Israel, choosing Sderot to declare his ‘unshakeable commitment to Israeli security’ and promising to ‘tell the story of Sderot.’ In fact the Sderot media centre has been telling the story, or as they put it, ‘communicating the reality of Sderot,’ since 2006. I had first come across the centre in 2008, when it became the focus of foreign journalists excluded from Gaza by the IDF during Operation Cast Lead. In 2012, news of rocket attacks on Sderot featured prominently in the run up to Operation Pillar of Defence. Less than a mile apart, the story of Sderot is inextricably linked to the story of Gaza, to Hamas rocket fire and Israeli military operations. I am curious to see how the media centre is going to explain the situation, or ‘frame the narrative’ as academics would say, to an outsider.

Read the article in full at Fathom Journal.