Negev and Galilee Minister Yitzhak Wasserlauf claimed Sunday during a Cabinet meeting that Hezbollah had used Arab citizens of Israel to purchase apartments in Kiryat Shmona during the war, “in an attempt to take over the city from within.”
The background to the unusual remarks lies in meetings Wasserlauf has held in recent months with security officials, in his capacity as an observer in the Security Cabinet. During the Cabinet session, Wasserlauf told ministers that his conversations with those officials indicated Islamist movements are trying to turn cities in Israel into “mixed” cities, meaning places with significant Jewish and Arab populations. He said this had raised a red flag in the southern city of Eilat, for example, where he claimed dozens of unauthorized mosques are already operating.
According to sources familiar with the matter, the Shin Bet security agency is aware of the phenomenon and is examining whether some of the apartments purchased during the war by Israeli citizens from the Arab community were bought at Hezbollah’s direction. At this stage, however, the information is considered preliminary, there are no official findings and none were presented to the minister.
According to Kiryat Shmona municipality officials, since the outbreak of the war many apartments have been purchased by members of minority communities. In the past month alone, at least 50 residents from the Arab community have changed their official address to the city, including people from the villages of Ras al-Ein, Nein, Wadi Hamam, Sha’ab, Tuba-Zangariyya and others.
Wasserlauf raised the issue as an aside during the Cabinet meeting when he sought to address the severe crisis in Kiryat Shmona and called for a special Cabinet session to be held in the city. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu instructed Wasserlauf to convene the special ministerial committee for the Negev and Galilee and present a comprehensive plan for the rehabilitation and development of the disaster-stricken city, which has struggled to recover since the war. About a quarter of the city’s residents have not returned since the end of the prolonged evacuation, and about 40% of the businesses that once operated there have closed.
Kiryat Shmona Mayor Avichai Stern said: “Of course Hezbollah also understands the city’s unique location and strategic importance and would be happy to undermine it from within and from without. It is possible it tried. From what I know, it did not succeed. Kiryat Shmona’s residents once again prove what strong stuff they are made of, and that is why. On the contrary, settlement in Kiryat Shmona is growing stronger, clearly driven by the religious Zionist sector and by families who come to the city out of love, a sense of mission and faith, and choose to build a home here.
“The reality of Kiryat Shmona requires the government of Israel to act now. Not with declarations and not in the distant future, but with a dedicated, immediate and clear decision to strengthen Kiryat Shmona economically, socially and in terms of security, because of its strategic importance to Zionism and to the security of the State of Israel. Hezbollah understands this, and it would be wise for the government of Israel to understand it as well.
“I thank Minister Wasserlauf for his work and commitment on behalf of Kiryat Shmona, but alongside that I say unequivocally: Kiryat Shmona needs a dedicated government decision now. Any further delay endangers the city’s future, and that must not happen.”