“Ignoring an immediate danger to our lives”: the residents of the border who were not evacuated are organizing to fight

22 thousand straightGods on the northern border will celebrate the holiday under the noise of the IDF’s cannons, the intentions of the Pazmars, Hezbollah’s UAVs and anti-tank missiles, and without the recognition of the State of Israel. Half a year into the war, they raise a stage in the struggle and set up a headquarters – ‘Magen Otaf Lebanon Forum’, with the aim of demanding from the state what they deserve.

On May 1, upon returning from the holidays, the halat of Merav Ben Zaken, a single mother from Kibbutz Kfar Blum, will end Ben Zaken is the marketing director of the iconic restaurant of the Galilee finger, ‘Dag on the Dan’. Some of its members, living in the kibbutz and those adjacent to it, which the state evacuated, are about to receive an extension of unemployment benefits or a special entitlement to unemployment benefits, as part of the basket of benefits for evacuees from the north, as determined by the state.

Some of them receive a host of other benefits – among other things, a generous grant of up to NIS 5,000 per family, promoted by Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich. Overall, even with quite a bit of criticism of the way it was carried out, since the beginning of the war the families of its members have been systematically evacuated from the combat zone with state funding, and it seems that right now, with the announcement of the construction of the temporary schools, their evacuation will also continue into the coming year.

What separates an old man and his partner from the evacuated Beit Hillel seat is less than a mile and a half. A kilometer and a half that determined everything in the last six months. “We had an expectation that we would receive a grant or that members of the government would at least answer us,” Ben Zaken says. “In the first months we allowed ourselves to receive this attitude, because we said that the south and the settlements adjacent to the fence were the top priority, but today it is clear that the government has no desire to manage what is happening in the north.”

“IDF shooting around the clock”

In the last six months, 19 settlements in the north, all located in the range between 3.5 and 8 km from the border, petitioned the High Court demanding that it order the state to compensate them for the damage caused to them. The petition spans hundreds of pages, but its bottom line is clear – the lives of 22,000 Israelis, From Kibbutz Shamir in the east to Gesher Ziv in the west (not all settlements in this area petitioned the High Court, but they all face the same problem) They suffered a great deal of damage due to the fighting in the north – in employment, in the education and well-being of the children, and in the possibility of living safely in their homes.

The state decided to declare only the settlements closest to the conflict line (up to 3.5 km) as war zones, and created an image that the war is only taking place there. Those who were evicted, there was a feeling that they were being looked at as if it was “business as usual” for them.

In the WhatsApp groups of the residents of the north, they joked at the beginning of last week that maybe it was thanks to the pole“Iranian waters, they will get a little screen time thanks to the noisy and scary phenomenon that passes over their houses about 3 times a day on average.

“There were falls in Kfar Blum. Missiles and UAVs,” says Ben-Zakan. “There is IDF shooting here around the clock. A distorted image is created that there are dangerous places and some that are not, but our lives are in immediate danger – And we are completely ignored.”

The remaining residents, who do not have many options not to be like this, are faced with the reality of fearing terrorist infiltration, firing rockets in a direct and steep trajectory, launching drones into the area, military blockades Access roads to places of residence and work, and especially massive, defensive and offensive shooting by the IDF, which is stationed near the settlements.

The struggle of the residents of these settlements started to grab headlines only recently, Among other things, because many Some of the residents who evacuated independently began to return to the area Only in December-January. At first they had an expectation that the situation would calm down, or reach some sort of solution, But as the fighting continued with no end in sight, the economic situation began to deteriorate.

“When they talk about the end of the war, I know that I will want to go back to my job, but there is almost no work here in the area, and if there is – which employer will take me for a temporary job now?”, Ben Zaken wonders. “People here will fall into poverty and a complete lack of control over life.”

“There are no calculus classes because they failed to get an calculus teacher”

“We traveled around the country for two months until we ran out of money,” says Gilad Yehudai, a member of Kibbutz Shamir. His story is The story of most of the residents who are close to the border, but were not evacuated. The savings have been exhausted, the apartments are expensive, And most of them have small children who were unable to connect to other educational frameworks because they were not officially evacuated, and it will be difficult to finance these private ones.

Today, the frameworks for their children in settlements are partial, the number of hours in them is reduced, age groups are mixed in one class, and the rest of the time many of the children stay alone at home, close to the protected spaces.

“We don’t have calculus classes because they couldn’t get a calculus teacher,” says Yehudai. He says that the kibbutz has had trouble getting answers in the field of resilience to date. “No matter how you make plans, they are canceled. There is no pool and no walking to a stream or a grove, because you must not stray away from a protected place“.

Jewish Works in the kibbutz’s factory, but his wife, an organizational consultant for several companies in the area, has not worked since the beginning of the war and receives modest assistance from the kibbutz. The life centers of the kibbutz – the health funds, the shopping centers and the service in Kiryat Shmona are not active, and this requires the families remaining in the area to travel far for what was right next to the house before the war.

“I was born and lived here during all the Lebanese wars,” says Yehudai. “There were bombs and it was difficult, But it was never that long, and it is certain that there was no attitude as if there was no war. Ministers do not come to the north. There are no artists who sing in shelters. is nothing”.

The non-evacuated residents have already come several times to the Knesset committees, and several MKs have also come to visit. “Where we are right now – we have zero results,” says Yehudai.

Minister of the Negev and Galilee Yitzhak Wasserlauf, who is entrusted with promoting the interests of the residents, arrived in the region only recently, brought solidarity with him and advised them to shout louder in the media. All offices, The politicians and the military leaders convey the message to the residents that what is important right now is the evacuees and the fighting across the border, so they just have to wait.

In the last discussion held on the matter in Beg“C. The judges demanded that the state understand what obligations it has towards those who were not evacuated by virtue of a military order, but are still near a combat zone. The state has not yet returned with an answer, but what is important to the residents right now is a government decision. The demand is simple – recognition of the economic, family and social damage of the residents of the area, which is embodied in grants and compensations, and taking responsibility on the part of the state for fulfilling the minimum needs of the residents of the non-evacuated settlements – government and civil services, medicine, Personnel for teaching, appropriate educational frameworks and emotional and community support.