The daily pastime of hundreds of curious onlookers, who gather on a hill near Sderot to watch the air force bombardment of terrorist strongholds in the Gaza Strip, has already caused a stir on media networks around the world.
But last night (Sunday) an unusual observer arrived at the scene: the Rebbe of Karlin-Stolin.
The Rebbe, who arrived accompanied only by a driver, walked around among those present simply, hatless, and watched the events unfolding on the battlefield.
Want more news, videos and stories? Join the Haredim 10 WhatsApp channel >>
This is not the first time that the Rebbe, who lives in Givat Ze'ev, has come to the location. During Operation Cast Lead, the Rebbe was also recorded on the hill watching IDF activity inside Gaza through binoculars.
The Rebbe of Karlin-Stolin, despite being a leader of thousands, conducts himself without the dignified manners of a Rebbes. He usually visits various places alone, and flies abroad without a Shin Bet team.
""The Rebbe tends to keep up to date with what is happening as much as possible, without filters. He wants to see everything with his own eyes and be impressed in an unbiased way," explains one of his followers.
The storm that erupted around the world over the daily outing in front of Gaza occurred after Alan Sorensen, the Danish Middle East correspondent for the newspaper kristeligt-dagblad, published a photo from the scene. Sorensen, who has lived in Israel for more than a decade, posted the photo on his private Twitter account. Since then, the tweet has garnered ten thousand shares and made headlines in major media outlets around the world, including the New York Times, the Huffington Post, and the British Daily Mirror.
[gallery]
""My colleague and I climbed the mountain to get a good vantage point to look at what was happening in Gaza," Sorensen told the Mako website. "When we arrived, we saw about fifty or sixty people, some local residents and some Jerusalem yeshiva students who had come to Sderot specifically to stand on the hill and watch what was happening.
So far I haven't seen a problem with it, other than the danger that sitting there could pose – curiosity is a natural thing. But then we noticed that it was becoming a kind of picnic for some people: they brought deck chairs, made coffee, popcorn, light refreshments like that – like at a football game or a movie.
We stood there and talked to them and after about ten minutes we heard the first explosion of the bomb in Gaza and we also saw a flash of light. This is the first time I noticed people clapping and cheering for the bombings. It just surprised me at that moment, I wasn't expecting it. I took out my phone, took a picture and posted it on Twitter.".
