“No one prepares you for the moment when you will be a refugee in your own country.”
Hila Hatsav, a “Sderot refugee,” as she calls herself, was supposed to enter the Technion dormitories on October 10th, before beginning her studies in the Faculty of Architecture and Town Planning.
On October 7th, following the heavy rocket barrages on Sderot and the infiltration of armed terrorist squads into the city, she hurried to evacuate without having time to pack even a small bag – not even a pillow and a sheet. “No one prepares you,” she says, “for the moment when you become a refugee in your own country.”
On October 10th Hila received a phone call from Malka Rosenfeld, head of the Technion Student Union (TSA), who told her: Just come, we’ll take care of everything for you. “And really, I came to the guest house at the Technion to an apartment that had been arranged for me. They provided me with clothes, toiletries, food—whatever I was missing. Even a computer that allows me to study these days. And no less important – I met an amazing team here, from a student who volunteered to introduce me to the Technion in the early days to the president of the Technion who met me and asked to hear my story.”
Hila doesn’t know when she’ll be able to return to her home in Sderot, but she feels safe and loved here at the Technion. “I experienced solidarity, camaraderie, and community that you can’t experience anywhere else in the world. I am so happy that I came here and chose to study here. It was my dream to study here even before I knew what good people there were at the Technion.”
Since the beginning of the war, the Technion has begun absorbing evacuated residents from the south and north. Currently, about 60 people are hosted on campus in student dormitories and at the Forchheimer guest house at the Technion.