Half-empty and scarred by war, Kiryat Shmona sees protests – and grassroots rejuvenation |
KIRYAT SHMONA — After a night of rain, the sky was still cloudy and cool, and a fresh coat of snow on Mount Hermon was visible in the distance.
During Hanukkah school vacation in prewar times, this would have been a perfect day for visitors to pour into this city on Israel’s northern border.
However, Tuesday morning was anything but festive as some 1,000 people gathered at Kiryat Shmona’s entrance to protest what they feel is the government’s “abandonment” of the city.
Longtime resident Sima Alok held two protest signs aloft and spoke about the despair she has felt since returning to Kiryat Shmona after almost 14 months of war.
“They brought us back to nothing,” Alok told The Times of Israel. “We have no security, no work, no teachers, no social workers. The government has abandoned us.”
Alok’s frustration and anger were echoed by others at the demonstration, which was organized by Shiran Ohayon, another Kiryat Shmona resident.
“We are tired of promises, we want solutions to solve the problems,” Ohayon told The Times of Israel.
A day after the bloody October 7, 2023, Hamas-led massacre in Israel’s south, the Lebanese terrorist group Hezbollah began firing barrages of rockets, missiles and drones at Israel’s north, leading to an unprecedented mass evacuation of some 60,000 residents in communities close to the Lebanese border.
Virtually all of Kiryat Shmona’s 24,000 residents, just over a mile from the border, were among those evacuated until a ceasefire was reached in the north in late November 2024.
Though Israel dealt a heavy blow to Hezbollah’s military capabilities and eradicated much of the organization’s top leadership, evacuees remain uneasy and are hesitant to come home, even as rumors of a further IDF operation in Lebanon abound.
Forty-six civilians were killed, along with 80 IDF soldiers and reservists, by Hezbollah attacks, which also wreaked widespread destruction on homes and infrastructure in the north.
Only 60 percent of Kiryat Shmona’s residents have returned to the city since the ceasefire with Hezbollah, and only about half of the local businesses have reopened.
Ohayon and other residents have called on the Israeli government to suspend taxation on businesses and people in the beleaguered town, whose local government, like other municipalities in the country, ultimately comes under the purview of the Interior Ministry.
“There’s no reason to pay........