‘You despise us’: Northern mayors slam minister for lack of support ahead of school year
Regional council chair says government showed its indifference to the north by carrying out a preemptive strike on Hezbollah only when the country’s center was threatened
Mateh Asher Regional Council chair Moshe Davidovitch told Education Minister Yoav Kisch on Monday that he “won’t communicate with the government,” expressing northern municipality heads’ outrage at what they felt was a weak preemptive strike against Hezbollah on Sunday that showed preferential treatment for the country’s center.
Speaking at a meeting between Kisch, northern mayors and officers from the IDF’s Home Front Command ahead of the new school year, Davidovitch said he “won’t allow the school year to open in schools, kindergartens and educational facilities that are not protected, in a place where the IDF doesn’t know how to protect young people.”
“Yesterday you showed us how much you despise us,” he added, alluding to northern municipality leaders’ complaint that Israel attacked Hezbollah on Sunday only because the country’s center was at risk.
The predawn preemptive attack saw some 100 fighter jets strike thousands of Hezbollah’s rocket launcher barrels in Lebanon, which Israel said were aimed at strategic sites, including in the center. The Iran-backed terror group managed to fire some 250 projectiles at the north, causing damage to homes. A navy soldier was killed and two were injured when an interceptor missile misfired.
“You will be remembered in the history books as [the ones] who abandoned our children,” said Davidovitch, who also heads the Conflict Zone Forum of northern municipalities in Hezbollah’s line of fire.
Kisch said he understood the outrage and that he would make decisions about the school year in the north together with local leaders. The border towns are slated to decide whether they will reopen their educational institutions when the school year starts on Sunday or whether classes will be held in other locations due to the security situation, as they have largely been since the beginning of the war in October. Many of the towns have been entirely evacuated.
Education Ministry representatives at the meeting told the northern town mayors that their communities would receive support based on the needs of each individual municipality, the Kan public broadcaster reported.
Last month, Kisch announced that the school year would not be able to begin as planned in the north due to “security complexities” and urged Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to act decisively against Hezbollah in order to restore safety for northern residents.
Of 60,000 civilians relocated from northern Israel at the outset of the war, 14,600 are children, scattered in kindergartens and schools or makeshift premises throughout the country’s interior. The evacuated residents do not yet know when they will be able to return to their homes.
Since October 8, Hezbollah-led forces have attacked Israeli communities and military posts along the border on a near-daily basis, with the group saying it is doing so to support Gaza amid the war against Hamas there.
So far, the skirmishes on the northern border have resulted in 26 civilian deaths on the Israeli side, as well as the deaths of 20 IDF soldiers and reservists. There have also been several attacks from Syria, without any injuries.
Hezbollah has named 430 members who have been killed by Israel during the ongoing skirmishes, mostly in Lebanon but some also in Syria. In Lebanon, another 73 operatives from other terror groups, a Lebanese soldier, and dozens of civilians have been killed.
