“Kiryat Shmona” Settlers Protest: We Were Left to Our Fate and Are Desperate

By Staff,

Settlers in the settlement of “Kiryat Shmona” took to the streets on Tuesday morning in an angry protest against the conditions prevailing in the settlement after months of fighting and a prolonged evacuation.

According to the protesters, while their return was rushed, reconstruction has yet to begin.

Participants in the demonstration said that “without jobs, without an economy, and without security, ‘Kiryat Shmona’ continues to hemorrhage population, amid a prevailing sense that this so-called ‘city’ has been abandoned to its fate.”

During the protest, settler Dani Malka shouted, “Work, bread. Work, bread. That’s all we ask for. We don’t want suitcase full of dollars; we want bread and work. They told us everything was under control and reassured an entire entity, and in the end, people were killed and others were left unprotected. How could you do this? How?”

Later, Malka also directed his anger at the “Israeli” authorities and the so-called national security minister, saying, “What kind of police ‘state’ is this? Who are you, Ben-Gvir? Who are you to come and tell us how we are supposed to live here?”

For her part, Yafa Azran, another settler from “Kiryat Shmona,” described the reality settlers returned to, saying, “We came back to a ‘city’ that has nothing: closed shops and no means of livelihood.” She added, “There is a prevailing feeling in the north of a complete disconnection from the center in the: they do not recognize us, and they do not know who we are. They tell us we had fun and that we were on vacation. What are you talking about? We were forced out of our homes, then sent back to a place with nothing.”

Azran warned of a demographic collapse threatening the settlement, saying, “People are leaving because of the lack of security and the absence of an economy. We are desperate, and people are exhausted and sick. Homes are being sold, and ‘Kiryat Shmona’ will cease to exist. If nothing changes, this will become a border outpost, not a city.”

The settlers had previously granted “Israel” a one-year deadline following the announcement of a ceasefire, hoping conditions would improve. Instead, they now find themselves facing lavish promises that have not been fulfilled, bidding farewell to more settlers leaving in what was described as the “second wave” of abandoning a sinking ship, according to “Yedioth Ahronoth’s” northern front correspondent, Yair Kraus.

Kraus also noted that strained relations between “Kiryat Shmona” mayor Avichai Stern and Benjamin Netanyahu have compounded the crisis, pointing out that senior Likud officials are aligned with Netanyahu’s representative in the settlement, Eli Zafrani, while the settlers feel they have become hostages in a cynical political game.