About half a dozen Israeli lawmakers traveled to the north on Sunday to hear first-hand from northern Israelis what life is like under daily rocket, missile and combat drone attacks launched by Iran’s proxy in Lebanon, Hezbollah.
MKs Yitzhak Kroizer (Otzma Yehudit), Simcha Rothman (Religious Zionism), Moshe Sa’ada (Likud), Limor Son Har-Melech (Otzma Yehudit), Yuli Edelstein (Likud) and Moshe Solomon (Religious Zionism) are all members of the Knesset Land of Israel Caucus.
The lawmakers traveled from Jerusalem to meet with local community heads and business owners at the offices of the Merom HaGalil Regional Council and Kiryat Shmona city hall.
‘The Deepest Depths of Post-Trauma’
“The situation is so hard here,” Merom HaGalil Mayor Amitai Sofer told the lawmakers. “We see families, parents and children, every day in our office. They are badly traumatized, in the deepest depths of post-traumatic stress. We must rise and take action, whether it be through a political arrangement or not,” he urged.
“It is impossible to allow such a situation; for an entire year residents have been forced to leave their homes; there’s no break in the exile and no clarity on what to expect. The evacuees and those who remain here are living with endless uncertainty,” Sofer said.
“I say these things with great pain, to explain what we are living through. For a long time, those of us who live here in the north have had the feeling that no one in the rest of the country cares about what is happening here.
“No one is paying attention to the situation here. We are simply invisible.
“Yes, we must stand up for the south,” he acknowledged. “We must stand up for the hostages and make sure they return home. But it is important to also remember that here in the north there is an entire swathe of territory that is part of our country as well,” Sofer emphasized.
‘Until When?’
“We feel like we’re invisible. No one sees us, despite endless miracles and ceaseless attacks, and we ask, until when? Until when are we expected to suffer?
“I make this appeal in the name of the farmers whose fields lie fallow because it is impossible to send workers to plant and harvest under constant rocket fire; in the name of the parents whose children are in bomb shelters day after day, for an entire year.
“Try to imagine children in bomb shelters without basic amenities, without water; parents without even the ability to change diapers for half a day or more at a time. That is the reality in which we are living here in the north.
“I hope the MKs here will take this message back to the government of which they are a part, that they must rise and take action. We trust our children to this government and hope our trust is not misplaced,” he added.
Reaction from Rothman
The residents of northern Israel are facing “challenging times due to the existential war forced upon us by the enemy,” said Rothman, who chairs the Knesset Land of Israel Caucus.
“It is our duty as elected officials to recognize the challenges that lie before us and to do everything in our power to change the existing situation; to restore the north to its pre-war glory,” he told JewishPress.com following the day-long meetings.
“During the tour, we met the heads of the local authorities and the residents of the north and from all of them we heard a clear and uniform message: we must restore peace to the north. The only way to do this is through an uncompromising war against Hezbollah and terrorism,” Rothman added.
“I strengthen the hands of those who hold every piece of land in our country; these are the real gatekeepers of the State of Israel.'”
