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Message: <br /><br /> If you are having trouble reading this email, you may view this article online at: http://www.jweekly.com/36560/full/36560/celebrations-on-hold-due-to-hamas-rockets/ <br /><br /> <b>Celebrations on hold due to Hamas rockets</b> <br /> Friday, January 16, 2009 | by <br /><br /><p><b>ashkelon, israel | </b> One of the effects of Hamas firing rockets into Israel is that banquet halls in southern cities have been forced to cancel weddings and other normally festive events.<br /><br /> “This is the situation and we have to deal with it,” Linor Eliav, 31, said after getting married Dec. 31.<br /><br /> Her wedding was supposed to have been just north of Ashkelon, a city being battered by Grad rockets fired by from the Gaza Strip. But after the banquet hall closed on short notice because of missile fears, she moved the event to a safe Tel Aviv suburb.<br /><br /> The Israeli military has ordered all reception halls within rocket range of Gaza to call off gatherings of more than 100 people. Halls must close down completely if they do not have a fortified roof or cannot usher all guests into shelters within 30 seconds.<br /><br /> Tzvika Kobari, who runs the Samson’s Garden hall in Ashkelon, said he was allowed to stay open, but it didn’t matter. All but one of nearly 20 bar mitzvahs and baby parties scheduled at the hall during the last week in December had canceled, he said.<br /><br /> “People are in no mood to celebrate, anyway,” Kobari said.<br /><br /> Others, like Eliav, refused to give in to despair.<br /><br /> When she got word the night before her wedding that her banquet hall was shut down, she found a new venue near Tel Aviv and methodically informed 500-plus guests.<br /><br /> “Our friends got together and we just called everyone with the new location of the party,” she said. “It was like a military operation.” — ap</p> <p> </p>

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