We voted Likud, and now they are abandoning us, northern residents enraged

Photo: Channel 14

"We voted Likud, and now they are abandoning us": northern residents enraged

C14 News Desk, 35 minutes ago

Hundreds of residents of Hatzor HaGlilit and Rosh Pina blocked Route 90 in protest against the exclusion of their communities from the government’s aid and rehabilitation program for the north. Council heads and local business owners are warning of economic collapse and budgetary discrimination, despite being within rocket range and having suffered direct hits. The head of the Hatzor HaGlilit local council attacked the government, saying, "We do not appear on the maps of the State of Israel."

The struggle by northern communities escalated on Wednesday evening, when hundreds of residents of Hatzor HaGlilit and Rosh Pina, led by the heads of the local councils, blocked the main Route 90 to traffic in protest over being left off the national aid and rehabilitation map. The protesters, presenting a unified and unprecedented front, protested what they called blatant institutional discrimination and demanded full equality in the allocation of aid budgets and benefits for the north, while making clear that this evening’s move is only the opening shot in intensified protest action in the coming days.

On the ground, there was great anger and deep frustration among residents of Hatzor and Rosh Pina, who pointed a direct finger at the country’s leadership and expressed outrage that their votes were not translated into protection or support in a crisis, but into the exact opposite, incomprehensible abandonment. One of the protesters said with pain: "We voted Likud, we gave them our vote time after time מתוך faith that they would protect us, and now the government is simply turning its back on us, abandoning us and leaving us behind. For years we have gone with them and been disappointed again and again. We will not agree to be second-class citizens."

Joined to the general anger was also the cry of local business owners, who are collapsing under the burden of the unstable security and economic reality. Tzion, a resident of Hatzor HaGlilit, issued a desperate call to save the business sector in the area and said: "The businesses here are bleeding, the north is collapsing and it is impossible to continue standing by indifferently. These have been the worst five years the north has ever known. The government has sentenced us to economic collapse, and if we do not wake up now and change the decree, there will be no living business left here on the day after."

During the blocking of the main route, Michael Kabesa, head of the Hatzor HaGlilit local council, spoke and sharply attacked the government's conduct, saying: "We began in every possible forum the fight to save our home in Hatzor, we filed a petition to the High Court of Justice and came here this evening to block the main route in protest against the contempt the government shows us. We appear on Hezbollah’s maps, on the maps of the State of Israel we do not appear. They are abandoning us!"

Kabesa continued: "I have no more shocking and horrifying description than this. It cannot be that we take hundreds of rockets to the head in direct hits, and in the end they allocate NIS 15 billion in seven rehabilitation plans and Hatzor and Rosh Pina do not exist on the map. We will fight to the bitter end against this discrimination, against this huge distortion, against this abandonment by the Government of Israel and the State of Israel. Shame and disgrace!"