In visit to Kiryat Shmona, Netanyahu met with Likud mayoral candidate while snubbing city’s mayor

While visiting Kiryat Shmona earlier today, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met with the city’s Likud mayoral candidate, but not with incumbent Mayor Avichai Stern, despite claiming that he had not held any “civilian meetings” while in the battered northern city.

The Likud candidate, Eli Zafrani, shared images on Facebook of the briefing he attended with Netanyahu.

Kiryat Shmona didn’t hold local elections in February when most of the country did because it’s largely empty of residents, who were evacuated due to ongoing attacks from Hezbollah across the border in Lebanon.

Zafrani’s attendance at the security briefing and tour contradicts a claim from the Prime Minister’s Office earlier that civilian officials were not invited to the tour.

The PMO put out the statement after Netanyahu was criticized for not meeting with Stern.

Netanyahu had only visited Kiryat Shmona for a “military tour and a security situation assessment on the northern border,” the statement read. “Civilian meetings were not arranged with him, including not with the mayor of Kiryat Shmona. Civilian officials were not invited to the tour.”