David Bouskila is the mayor of the city of Sderot in Israel. This is the town that has been the target of some 8,000 terrorist rockets from Gaza.
Jewish National Fund built an indoor recreational center for the children of Sderot, thereby establishing a close relationship with the city. JNF in November brought Bouskila on a national speaking tour that included Milwaukee on Nov. 11-14.
Bouskila, 54, is the son of immigrants from Morocco, one of nine children. He is divorced and has three adult sons.
In Milwaukee, guided by JNF Wisconsin regional director Sidney Rivkin, Bouskila spoke at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (see accompanying story); to the Nicolet High School Hebrew class and Milwaukee Jewish Day School eighth graders; at Chai Point Senior Center; at Beth El Ner Tamid Synagogue and Congregations Emanu-El B’ne Jeshurun, Shalom, and Sinai; to local JNF leaders and participants; and finally to Leon Cohen, editor of the Wisconsin Jewish Chronicle, on Nov. 14.
Edited excerpts of his conversation with The Chronicle follow:
I believe you said at your talk at UWM that you were mayor of Sderot for five elections?
No, three elections. I was [mayor from] 1989 to 1998, and then now I start again in 2008. It’s my third period.
What did you do during the years you were not mayor?
I am an economist and computer analyst. I work in my profession in those years.
It must be a lot easier being an economist and computer analyst than being a mayor, right?
(Laughs). But it’s interesting to be a mayor of a town like Sderot, you know. [It] is a challenge. It’s not only to run the normal or the formal activities of the city like every other mayor in the world… You have also to run the city in emergency cases and prepare it in emergency time…
I started to be a mayor three weeks before Operation Cast Lead in Gaza. It was so short time to prepare, but Sderot functioned in one way that army and the other organizations in Israel feel was excellent… to give to the people the opportunity to be safe on one hand, and on the other hand [to] encourage them to stay in Sderot, and to feel that it’s our duty like [all] Israeli people to stay there…
What was your purpose in coming [to the United States and Milwaukee]? What did you hope to achieve?
Mainly, I arrive here through JNF, first of all to thank the people who make so much effort to build the nicest and unique recreation center in Sderot for our children. [We] are the only ones that have this kind of recreation center in Israel. And it’s something that the JNF gives us. And it’s one way to say thanks and to influence the people that worked so hard here for our safety and for our children’s future, to encourage them that the way they work and the way they help Israel is the best way to help us, to keep the home of all of us.
I find here very nice group of people … and they encourage me that they love Israel so much. [And seeing the children at the schools] makes me happy, to understand that also the second generation feels that Israel is their home and that [they are] with Israel in difficult moments and with Israel in nice moments, [and] worried about Israel’s future…
When did your parents come from Morocco to Israel?
In April 1956. This is the time that Sderot started to be a city. It was before a settlement for new immigrants. I was born [in Sderot] in July 1956. I was planned in Morocco, and they produced me in [Israel].
Why did your parents leave Morocco? Was it for Zionism or was there anti-Semitism?
No, there was not anti-Semitism. There was a movement that a lot of young Moroccan children want to go to Israel. And my oldest sister said, “I’m going to Israel.” She was something like 14 or 15 years old. And my parents tried to tell her you cannot go to Israel, we stay here [but eventually] she convinced them. And my father had some business there in Morocco. He lived well there.
It was difficult [in Israel] in the first years. It was really bad years… They had nothing, they had no money… We lived in house two rooms, one room we slept there, nine brothers and sisters.
But as I remember it was excellent life, because all of us were always together… even if it was difficult, it was not so difficult because everybody had the same… Everybody had no money. And [we] feel that we [were building] the country, that we build new thing…
What did you do in the army?
I was a combat medic. I did all my service in the army three years in the Sinai Desert on the Egyptian border between 1974 and 1977 [and as a reservist] I take a part in [Operation Peace for Galilee] in 1982…
Are the mayoral elections in Sderot according to the party lines?
No. There are two elections that happen in same day. One is for the mayors, and one for the members of the city council. In the election for members of the city council, [people vote for] the parties. The election for the mayor, they vote for [the individual]… It’s a direct election… It’s not like the Knesset. You can be the mayor and have no one [from your party] in the council.
What party do you belong to?
I belong to Kadima, but I run in Sderot as an independent. In the council, after the election, they know there’s no other mayor, and you make a coalition. I have now 11 of the 13 members [of the council] in the coalition.
Are you going to run again?
I don’t know now… I think that if the [security] situation will be much better, maybe I will not run again. But if it will continue to be difficult there, maybe I will run. I don’t take any decision now.
How long is your term for mayor?
Five years. It started in November 2008 and November 2013 will be the next election. I have enough time.
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