Kfar Yona mayor says protests target detention facility, not Haredim

Kfar Yona Mayor Albert Tayeb said the wave of protests in the city is not directed at the Haredi public, but at the continued operation of a detention facility in the middle of a quiet residential neighborhood. Speaking to Kikar HaShabbat near the protest site at the entrance to the city, by Givat Alonim, he said the local struggle is a broad civic protest against government and security decisions.

Tayeb stressed that the area has seen repeated demonstrations from different groups over time. “The story of Kfar Yona is not about the Haredim at all. That is not the story,” he said. He noted that before the current protests there were other demonstrations there, including by “the pacifists” and by people connected to the protests over the Nukhba detainees from Sde Teiman. “Every other Thursday we have events here,” he said, adding that the problem is not with the Haredim.

The mayor called on the government to remove the detainees from the site. He said the detainees are held for one or two days and then released, but the main issue is that a prison and detention center were built two years ago inside a residential neighborhood. “It is unthinkable that in 2026 they built such a facility in the heart of Givat Alonim,” Tayeb said.

He also urged calm and said he hopes there will be no clashes with either Haredi protesters or any other group that comes to demonstrate. “We all want the same thing in the end,” he said, expressing hope the issue will be resolved peacefully and sensitively.