After many weeks of loud protests on the streets of the northern city of Kiryat Shmona, in which mostly members of nearby kibbutzim and moshavim were paralyzing traffic to protest the judicial reform, this week the city folks, who are by and large right-leaning (Netanyahu routinely gets more than 50% of the vote there, followed by Shas), have had enough.
Anarchists preparing a disruption convoy that would paralyze traffic in Kiryat Shmona:
הכנות בשיירת קרית שמונה pic.twitter.com/Zd2ZOU1aV1
— דמוקרטTV (@Democrat_TV) July 11, 2023
And so, on Wednesday and Thursday this week, Kfar Giladi, Amir, Gan Shmuel, and Emek Hula were among the kibbutzim whose entrances were blocked by right-wing people who protested the anarchists’ blocking of the highways throughout the country, including in Kiryat Shmona. Similar blockages are planned in the Sharon region.
“עין תחת עין…” או …”תג מחיר…”
תושבים מקריית 8 חסמו הערב את הכניסה לקיבוץ עמיר בתגובה למחאה אתמול שבמהלכה היו עומסי תנועה בקריית שמונה.
אמש הם עשו פעולה דומה בשער של כפר גלעדי.
צילום: מאי עמר pic.twitter.com/ih7R7PavHO— Rubi Hammerschlag | רובי המרשלג (@rubih67) July 12, 2023
The names of many kibbutzim in the northern region were listed in a message that was circulated among right-wing WhatsApp groups, with the following instructions:
“The blockades are carried out using a chain of vehicles. What does this mean in practice? You park your vehicles in front of the kibbutz/moshav gate in such a way that entry/exit is not possible. The hours of the blockade are 06:00-08:00 in the morning and from 4:00 in the afternoon until 6:00: – these are peak hours when people leave/return from work.
“Organize some vehicles and run with it. This is a mirror image. They do it to us and this is probably the only way to get them to stop.”
תקשיבו לדוד קמרי מהוותיקים של קרית שמונה pic.twitter.com/eI8XnVUicX
— תמיר שלום (@8bg94uayBqvYfDN) July 12, 2023
According to Ynet, it took only ten Kiryat Shmona motorists to block Kibbutz Kfar Giladi completely. One of the activists told Ynet: “Yesterday they crossed another line when during the busy two hours of the morning the residents of Kiryat Shmona were blocked on their way to summer camps with their children, to work, to school, and of course also for medical treatment. We wish for better days when we will be united in good neighborliness – religious and secular, residents of Kiryat Shmona and the kibbutzim, and that we will see each other again as siblings.”
Wednesday night, the headquarters of the Galil Golan protests posted a message to their proclaiming: “In the last few hours, Ben Gvir’s emissaries blocked the entrance gates of kibbutzim in various places in Israel. This is a calculated move by the Otzma Yehudit party, which marked the elections to the local municipalities as a strategic target and uses the tensions between the development towns and the kibbutzim as a platform to mobilize support in the way Ben Gvir knows best: provocation and stoking the fire of hatred and division.”
In a video circulating online, a right-wing activist is heard calling on a megaphone to the residents of Kibbutz Gan Shmuel: “Shame, shame, the kibbutzim are the head of the snake. You block us and then return to your eternal peace. Starting today, this eternal peace is over. We are done being the suckers.”
