C'tee shocked at state's decision not to increase rocket protection.
By JPOST.COM STAFFAshkelon Rocket(photo credit: Tovah Lazaroff)The Ashkelon Municipal Parents' Committee called on the municipality Sunday to delay the opening of the school year in protest to the decision made today by the state to not provide extra fortification for educational institutions in the city.The parents committee wanted city mayor Benny Vaknin to follow through on his promise and not open the school year on Wednesday. "If the mayor does not decide to postpone the start of the school year then he will be abandoning the children to the missiles."RELATED:Normal life resumes quickly in AshkelonUN complaint filed on Grad attackAshkelon schools to boycott drillSofie Hotovely Pinhas, deputy chairwoman of the parents' committee, said the parents of the town were shocked by the state's decision.Mayor Vaknin insisted that Deputy Defense Minister Matan Vilnai (Labor) had promised that Ashkelon's schools would be fortified."We will continue the public campaign. There is a decision to fortify educational institutions in communities surrounding the Gaza Strip. In this respect, Ashkelon is no different from these communities," Vaknin said.State representatives said earlier that there is no justified rationale to protect Ashkelon any more than other cities that have been subject to rocket attacks in the past such as Haifa, Kiryat Gat, Yavne and Beersheba.The state claimed that it has no obligation to protect Ashkelon and there is no reason to single the city out from the general policy that the government has already determined considering the protection of educational institutions.The state also said that the inter-ministerial committee established by Deputy Defense Minister Matan Vilnai is working very hard to protect the city of Ashkelon.
