Evacuees from Israel’s North, protesting the government’s handling of the conflict with Hezbollah, drove a protest convoy from Jerusalem to Nahariya, where they gathered to give a statement Thursday evening.
The protesters demanded a preemptive strike against Hezbollah, calling on the country not to wait for “the terror organization to attack Israel.”
“Look at the disgrace,” said an evacuee from Kiryat Shmona. “We have been anticipating a response for two weeks instead of beating them.”
“We planned to come with a convoy from Jerusalem to the border and found that the border runs here [in Naharia]. The State of Israel has shrunk by 10 km. at its north. I call from here on the citizens of Israel – if you don’t want to live on the border, come out and fight for the country because if you don’t, the country will shrink to where you are.”
The protest was organized by the Fighting for the North organization. It marked the expiration of a deadline set by evacuees for Israel’s government to change its handling of the situation in the North before the organization initiated a new wave of protests.
Planned protests
In mid-July, the organization threatened to establish a tent city on the northern border if the government did not make a “significant change” in its policy towards the North and handling of Hezbollah’s attacks by August 15.“The State of Israel has lost the North,” Matan Davidian, an evacuee who coordinates a group of evacuees from Shlomi, said in July.
“It’s been nine months since the start of the war, and [many] are uprooted from their homes. If there was a goal for the war in the North, if there was a real desire for a long-term victory, a year or two out of our homes would be an option,” he said.
Davidian added that he was pained that despite attacks on Israel, there was ongoing talk of a “surrender agreement with Hezbollah.”
“It should be clear: if we don’t attack now, there will be no more chances,” he stated.