The heads of local authorities in the north who met with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday said that they "felt like extras in a staged photo shoot," which was distributed at the end of the meeting to the media, the head of the Mateh Asher Regional Council Moshe Davidovitch told Radio North 104.5FM on Wednesday.
"It seemed that Netanyahu, who wanted to hold the meeting in Jerusalem at the beginning of the week, came there to check a visit that was imposed on him off a list, very late, about a month and a half after the outbreak of hostilities," said Davidovitch, who also serves as the chair of the Line of Conflict Forum.
"When we turned to him and asked for compensation for the residents who evacuated themselves with the start of the fighting in settlements that are 0-9 km from the border and cannot maintain a reasonable lifestyle, like in the south, in the amount of NIS 200 for an adult and NIS 100 for a child, he said: 'I don't I believe that [Finance Minister] Bezalel [Smotrich] needs me. What is he the finance minister for? Let him release it.'"
The head of the Upper Galilee Regional Council, Giora Zaltz, stated that Netanyahu told the regional council heads that residents of the north should receive compensation as well and that restoring security to the north would be part of the goals of the war as well.
Eshkol Regional Council head to sleep outside Knesset in protest
Additionally, the head of the Eshkol Regional Council in southern Israel, Gadi Yarkoni, stated in the Knesset Finance Committee on Wednesday that "Smotrich cannot be finance minister - he does not understand what happened here on October 7."
Yarkoni made the comments after the committee approved regulations providing exemptions for municipal taxes ("Arnona") and compensation funds for evacuated cities and towns, but excluded three towns in the Eshkol Regional Council - Tze'elim, Gvulot, and Urim.
"The finance minister does not care what happened here on October 7th. I gave him a chance until now, I was with him a week ago in a meeting. Today I am staying with my car here in Jerusalem until the minister changes his mind and compensates the entirety of Eshkol," said Yarkoni, adding that he would sleep outside the Knesset until the change is made. "There is no other choice! If he doesn't understand what happened to Eshkol, he can't be finance minister."