Kiryat Shmonah Mayor Explodes: "You Abandoned Us"

"It doesn’t matter how we end the conflict in Lebanon or Iran, if we lose a city in the State of Israel, it will be the first time a city in our country simply disappears. Today, there are ten thousand residents left in Kiryat Shmona. And you expect them to stay in this bleak reality for another month, or however long, you said a month, but you don’t even know, how long do you think they’ll last? If they were given an evacuation, they could choose to remember the 'big pool' and the good times instead of the trauma of having ten seconds to run for a shelter.

That fear is what caused 16,000 to leave. And if you expect those remaining 10,000 to stay like this for another month, or even ten days, you’ll end up with only ten people left, the ones who literally cannot walk out on their own. Because by now, they feel every explosion in their bones daily. People keep telling me, 'This is a victory for Hezbollah; they cleared the north.' Listen: Hezbollah already won, regardless of what happens next. Their victory was ensuring that not even a thousand people would stay in the State of Israel. Whether they 'cleared' it or we evacuated it, that isn't my concern.

My concern is that I have 4,700 apartments with no standard fortification, or no protection at all. What kind of neglect is this? You're talking about 'digital fortification'? In real-time, you need to protect them. If you can’t, get them out of harm's way. You don’t send a soldier into battle without a ceramic vest, right? So why do you put a citizen on the front line without a shield? That is the bare minimum that distinguishes a state from its citizens. You promised us security? You failed! I have a two-year-old girl, and when I have to take her for an activity, I spend two hours in a shelter. That’s how our residents are living.

Do any of you know what a ten-second warning feels like? When you have children at home, or the disabled, the limited, the elderly? How do you expect an 80-year-old man, like the one I met last week, to reach a shelter in ten seconds? How did you expect that poor bus driver to stop the bus, get the passengers off, and find cover? He took a direct hit to the head in the latest strikes. We got lucky, if that bus had been full of people, we wouldn't have even had the medical response to treat them. No organized evacuation, no Intensive Care Ambulance (ICU). Are you people normal? What kind of citizens are we? Do I have to go to Hezbollah to beg for a pause just to get people out? Should I have to speak with Hezbollah because my own country won't help? And in the midst of this disaster, we are drowning in bureaucracy.

The Prime Minister’s Office received money but doesn't know how to implement it. Here are all the Treasury officials: where is my money? What money has actually reached me? You know exactly what’s left in the pot, and you all know there are 'decisions' but no actual cash. 25% of the city’s population is currently on welfare. Every fourth person is a welfare case, do you understand that? That is the current demographic of the city. 18% of students from 1st to 8th grade can't read or write. While the rest of the country prepares to open schools, in the North, we are still rotting in shelters. Would you leave your children like this?

I’ve been dealing with potholes for two years; I can’t even fix the roads. Why? Because I fix one at 8:00 PM, and by 10:00 AM, there’s a new crater. I’m begging for advances, and they won't release funds unless I sign some 'settlement agreement' that cuts my budget. They expect me to sign off on nothing after two years of waiting, just to leave my residents driving on broken roads while we tell them stories about 'reconstruction after the war' and new universities.

I have 400 homes with major structural damage. Two years later, people are still driving past them. You want to tell them it will be okay? You want to talk to them about 'resilience'? Even resilience has a limit. The law says the Property Tax Compensation Fund must restore a damaged area to its previous state. No one is restoring anything, not even close.

There is no differentiation. When I look at the goals of this forum, if corporate tax is 4% across the board, why would anyone come to Kiryat Shmona? You’ve made these 'priority zones' before, but they always stop at Yokneam or Nahariya. Nahariya has a train that gets you to Tel Aviv in 40 minutes. That isn't Kiryat Shmona. For us, it’s a three-hour journey on a good day. I’m telling you: next time, come to me. Evacuations, breaks, respites, I’m a beggar! I have to plead for two days at the Dead Sea just to get an 80-year-old man out so he doesn't lose his mind.

Have you lost your senses? These are the fathers and mothers of every one of you. These are the people who built this state. These are the 'Sallah Shabati' types who were told Kiryat Shmona was 'close to Jerusalem' when they got off the planes. They opened a map and chose Metula, that’s how my grandfather got there. They’ve held onto this land since '48, paying the price in '74 with terrorist infiltrations, in '69, and in the first Katushas. They told me my children wouldn't have to grow up in shelters. They lied. My daughters are in shelters right now. And it doesn't seem to interest any of you. I’m here every morning, and I feel like the State of Israel is fighting me, not Hezbollah, not Iran, me.

I even spoke with the Director General of the Health Ministry. After I fought and succeeded against the odds, I brought in the seventh-best hospital in the world that was willing to come to us. He told me, 'No, it’s too big, I won't give you the permits.' I went to Ichilov Hospital. They told me to work with Rambam to operate 24/7. Rambam refused. He won't give me 24/7 medical coverage, and he stubbornly refuses to give me the medical solution that the government already allocated money for.

And then he says to me: 'The Galilee and Kiryat Shmona don't have the justification. You are only 70,000 people; you don't need a medical center.' Well, keep going like this, and you won't even have 70,000."