Kiryat Shmona protesters: Half the city still hasn’t returned

Residents demand incentives, jobs and tax relief as essential for revival and growth.

By Batya Jerenberg, World Israel News

For the second consecutive week, residents of Kiryat Shmona demonstrated Monday at the city’s entrance, demanding stronger government support as they say half of the population has yet to return after being evacuated at the start of the War of Revival.

They had a long list of demands in order to rehabilitate their city in more ways than just repairing damage caused by Hezbollah rockets.

One of their key requests was for a comprehensive incentive package to both support local businesses, which are simply closing their doors for lack of customers, and attract large employers capable of bringing stable jobs back to the city.

“The government talks about a 600-million-shekel aid package for the north, but as residents and business owners, we haven’t received any help — not from the government, not from city hall,” shop owner Elimelech Shalom told Ynet at the demonstration.

“Meanwhile, we’re expected to keep paying everything: property tax, rent, regular bills. Expenses stay the same, but our income has collapsed,” he said.

Residents also called for reduced income and property taxes, noting that the hard-hit communities near the Gaza border continue to receive special benefits.

“They say 16,000 people have returned to the city,” Shalom added, seemingly referring to a statement by Kiryat Shmona Mayor Avichai Stern to the Knesset’s National Security Committee last month.

“That’s not true. Here, we see the reality. I doubt there are even 12,000 residents now,” he said, down from about 24,000 before the war.

Another protester, Batya Amar, said young people in particular have not returned, calling the trend “deeply worrying.”

Two of her four children have stayed away, she said, and she understands why.

“We’ve lived like soldiers here all our lives,” Amar noted. “Since I was a child, we’ve lived under rocket fire, through wars, carrying trauma — me and my children.”

During their evacuation, she said, residents experienced “a different world – a world with proper healthcare, employment, culture, opportunities. Coming back here, it feels like we can’t go on like this.”

Residents said few people want to live in a city that shuts down by 5 p.m., lacks adequate services and is about 40 miles from the nearest hospital.

“I feel like we’re treated this way because they know we came back only because we had no choice,” said resident Hana Albilia. “Those who did have a choice stayed in the towns they evacuated to.”

“I’ve had enough,” she added in frustration. “We’re holding the north. Without us, what will be left here? Just a military base?”

The security situation is still fluid at the nearby border with Lebanon.

Although Hezbollah was pushed several miles north and significantly weakened during the war, the IDF continues to target its operatives as the group attempts to rebuild its terror infrastructure near Israel’s border.

Worry over another breakout of hostilities in the north is also a major deterrent to residents’ return.

Responding to the Ynet report, Special Committee for Strengthening and Developing the Negev and Galilee Chairman MK Oded Forer of the Opposition’s Israel Beiteinu Party called its contents “catastrophic.”

“If the government does not begin a real emergency plan for rehabilitation, economic development, employment and basic services, we will witness the slow death of the city and its collapse,” he said.

demonstrationsKiryat ShmonarehabilitationtaxesWar of Revival