Around 50 residents of Hazor HaGelilit and Rosh Pinna demonstrated yesterday evening (Wednesday) in protest against the government’s decision not to include the communities in the northern rehabilitation plan, which was approved last week.
The protest comes a few days after the communities, together with the joint Tzahar industrial zone, petitioned the High Court of Justice, arguing that their exclusion from the rehabilitation plan is unjustified. According to them, although they are located slightly beyond the confrontation line, defined as up to 9 km from the Lebanese border, they suffered significant economic and social damage during the war.
About 200 buildings in the communities sustained direct damage.
While the protection plan determined that all structures in the frontline zone would be reinforced, residents of Hazor HaGelilit and Rosh Pinna emphasize that about 200 buildings in the communities suffered direct damage, and that more than 70% of homes in the communities do not have standard protection. According to them, they currently have no response to this issue.
“It makes no sense that they give 180,000 shekels to a family to fortify themselves a kilometer from here, and here we get nothing. It’s a disgrace,” Hazor council head Michael Kabesa told Davar.
According to him, “There are currently seven government rehabilitation frameworks, and in none of them is Hazor included.” Kabesa added that he is not aware of any government plan expected to be presented soon.
Criticism of the Government
Yaakov Ben Chaim, a resident of Hazor HaGelilit participating in the protest, criticized the decision, telling Davar: “Bezalel Smotrich needs to learn some geography because he doesn’t know where we are. How can they allocate [benefits] to Nazareth and Afula and skip over us?!”
During the protest, one of the residents shouted into the microphone of Channel 14 that if a plan is not formulated for Hazor HaGelilit, he would ensure that no one in the community votes for the Likud party.
Hanan Ben Chaim, also from Hazor HaGelilit, told Davar that for him the exclusion from the rehabilitation plan was not surprising: “Unfortunately, the fact that we were not included in the rehabilitation plan was not a surprise, because it has been like this for decades. From all over the area people come to Hazor to work and receive services, but to invest? That does not happen.”
The government has not yet responded to the communities’ demands, but in the coming weeks a detailed plan is expected to be presented for supporting communities located further from the border, at a cost of about NIS 3 billion.
Among the communities that may be included are Safed, Acre, Tiberias, Karmiel, and Nof HaGalil. On the face of it, Hazor and Rosh Pinna are also expected to be included in this plan, which is intended for communities significantly farther from the border. However, local authority heads say that no plan has been presented to them so far.
