By Wolfgang Sannwald
“You were in a totally privileged situation!” These were the words of a tuenews colleague who fled Syria for Germany in 2016, commenting on pictures and impressions from a bunker in the Israeli city of Haifa.
Members of a small delegation from the district of Tübingen, who had traveled to the partner district of Hof HaCarmel, sought shelter there on the nights of June 13 to 16. Iran had responded to a previous Israeli attack with rocket salvos. One photo shows a former discotheque converted into a bunker in the second basement of their hotel, where about 40 white plastic chairs were set up on the former dance floor.
For a few days, the guests from Tübingen experienced what millions of people around the world often have to endure for years. Fear, bombs, rockets, and nights in shelters. But even this protection is not available to everyone in war. During the civil war in Syria, they would not have had comparable protection, according to the group: One family moved into a small room in a stable, another fled to the city center in the hope of finding a little more safety. At the editorial meeting, a colleague from Iran recounts how relatives in Tehran hear or see Israeli air force bombs hitting their homes but have nowhere safe to flee to within the house. And in the Gaza Strip, there were and still are virtually no shelters for civilians.
The members of the Tübingen delegation were grateful for the bunker in their hotel, which many other people in Israel who live in older houses do not have. The tuenews INTERNATIONAL team sympathizes with all people who are exposed to war. These are wars that were not decided by the people, but by governments. Our sympathy goes out to all people inside and outside bunkers who, whether in Israel, Iran, the Palestinian territories, Syria, Lebanon, or Ukraine, fear for their lives and their existence.
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