‘We live with border protests and fire balloons’ Israeli discusses life on the Gaza border [Video]

Yael Raz Lachyani dreams of a “normal life.” For her, that’s a life where tax money can be spent on schools, hospitals and good roads, rather than bomb shelters; a life where her five children can look to the sky and see fireworks, rather than rockets raining down on them.

That dream is one of the things that keeps the Israeli native clinging to her home in Kibbutz Nahal Oz, which is located a scant 800 metres from the hotly disputed Gaza-Israel border. The agricultural settlement – where residents grow tomatoes, potatoes and sunflowers – has endured frequent attacks from Gaza, but despite the barrage, its 450 residents refuse to leave.

“In the beginning, it was just one or two rockets every couple of weeks and we all thought it would go away,” Lachyani said in an interview before her recent series of presentations in Hamilton, Ont. “For the last 12 years, …