Published in the Spring 2026 issue of Leviathan

“I ask you to do everything possible to prevent [residents] leaving the [northern] communities”, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told the mayors of communities across Israel’s Northern District as his government simultaneously voted to abandon the members of those very same communities [1][8]. As Israel’s war with Hezbollah in Southern Lebanon rages on, Israelis living in the north face pressure to risk their lives from their own government. Concurrently, that same government votes to starve them of vital funds and resources to protect themselves. Hezbollah largely exerts control in the southernmost part of Lebanon, where it fires rockets that cross the border and strike with dangerous speed, often leaving civilians with little time to seek shelter. When sirens sound to warn of rocket launches in many of these communities in northern Israel, residents have 15-30 seconds to find shelter before the expected impact [2]. In Israel’s 2023-24 conflict with Hezbollah, over 80,000 of these northern residents were relocated to safer places across the country further from the border, commonly Tel Aviv [3]. 

Around 14 months after the conflict began, I traveled to Israel on a volunteering trip, designed to help farmers in the south of Israel who relied on foreign labor that had slowed to a halt during wartime. For part of my time in Israel, I stayed in the Abraham Hostel in Tel Aviv, where I met a group of four women who were playing music in the second-floor lobby. They asked me to sit and play music with them, and I agreed. Upon realizing that I spoke Hebrew and was Israeli myself, they opened up to me about how they ended up playing music every Friday at the hostel. They informed me that the hostel we were staying in had been holding hundreds of ‘internal refugees’- people who had fled their homes in the north looking for safety. These four women would come to the hostel every Friday to play music for them and lift their spirits. They described to me how heartbroken the northerners were, having to leave their entire lives behind, not sure if their communities and homes would still be standing when they returned. They did not want to leave their lives behind; they felt genuine fear and lack of protection, just as they do now. 

Why now, in the north’s current dangerous proximity to active warfare, would the Prime Minister urge these innocent civilians to stay in areas where rockets and missile threats are intensified? In June 2025, reporting about the 2023-24 war, Israel’s State Comptroller stated that it found 54% of northern evacuees believed there was a high chance that they would not return to living in the north, fearing future escalations along the border [4]. The comptroller wrote that the Prime Minister’s Office failed at formulating a long-term plan for the rehabilitation of communities in the north and preparing for the return of evacuated residents to their homes…”, as well as that the responsibility for this ‘difficult’ outcome lies first and foremost with the Prime Minister’s Office [4]. These types of scandalous failures and administrative shortcomings, which Netanyahu seems to deflect with masterful skill, regardless carry potential consequences to his popularity and the public trust. Evacuees also generally require help from the government financially. Finding thousands of people housing for potentially months on end in one of the most expensive cities on Earth, Tel Aviv, is easier said than done; making them pay for their own emergency living spaces may cause further political turmoil for the government [5]. But this political chess becomes irrelevant when you remember that lives are on the line. 

And it’s not just the deadly physical impact of these attacks. These rocket barrages often occur in the middle of the night, forcing residents to wake up and in seconds having to flee to shelter with little time to spare, causing intense psychological trauma [10]. In an interview with the Times of Israel, Moshe Davidovich, head of the Mateh Asher Regional Council, said, “People who are in their homes pray. That’s what they do” [1]. The effects of the terror and fear caused by the lack of protection for these civilians cannot be overstated. A study in the Journal of Traumatic Stress found that civilians exposed to ongoing missile attacks reported significantly higher PTSD symptoms and lower life satisfaction compared to non-exposed populations [11]. 

Netanyahu’s government’s negligence of the north continues: On March 30th, 2026, the Knesset (Israeli Parliament) voted to pass a new budget [6]. The budget, the largest in Israel’s history, was under filibuster from opposition MKs (Members of the Knesset) for 13 hours, after which a vote was held from a sheltered compound in Jerusalem in the midst of missile and rocket attacks. In the Israeli parliamentary system, MKs can attach reservations to specific parts of a bill, triggering separate votes designed to delay or amend legislation. However, in this budget vote, the governing coalition added a reservation for diverting a whopping $255 million to Yeshivas and other ultra-orthodox communities [6]. The opposition assumed this reservation was from their own ranks to disrupt the bill’s passage, and without reading it, massively voted to approve the resolution and unwittingly caused the bill to pass in an overwhelming 107-4 majority vote [6]. Simultaneously, as this budget passed, $50 million was cut from northern Israel rehabilitation efforts, adding even further to the humiliation of both the opposition and northern citizens themselves [7].

How can northern residents feel anything but abandoned as the government takes money they needed to rebuild their communities, torn apart in war, and gives five times the amount to ultra-orthodox communities, while only 23% of Haredi (Ultra-Orthodox) men pay income tax, meaning 80% of Haredi households receive more fiscal government support than they pay in taxes [9]. This results in northern citizens paying more taxes and receiving less government support, despite having much more physical need. Additionally, in 2018, the Home Front Command, the Israeli institution designed to command and protect civilians during wartime, launched a ‘Northern Shield’ program, allocating $960 million to address bomb shelter shortages in the north and prepare civilians for emergency situations [8]. However, in January, the State Comptroller found that only 52% of the allocated funds had actually been transferred, and the project was unofficially frozen [8]. 

Netanyahu’s government has shown disregard for its citizens again and again. These patterns continuously suggest that Netanyahu and his government only act for their own political benefit. Any and all places or regions where they have little to gain politically will continue to be ignored. Israelis living in the north are under constant threat to their lives, and their safety or wellbeing has not just been forgotten about; it has been knowingly neglected. Ultra-orthodox communities are receiving more money than ever before, and extremist parties are being welcomed into the government so that Netanyahu can keep his head above water. It is a basic feature of any functioning and decent government to care for their own citizens’ lives. However, it seems that Netanyahu’s government is much more interested in maintaining its precarious hold onto political power than improving the quality of their peoples’ lives.

Works Cited:

1. TOI Staff. “Anger Mounts in Northern Communities as Netanyahu
   Urges Residents Stay Put.” The Times of Israel, March 26, 2026.
2. Fabian, Emanuel. IDF to extend Lebanon rocket warning time as
   Hezbollah pushed from Border Zone, March 27, 2026.
3. Jeremy Bob, Yonah. “Hundreds of Israeli Homes Damaged by
   Hezbollah Strikes since War Began: The Jerusalem Post.” The
   Jerusalem Post | JPost.com, February 1, 2024.
4. Bletter, Diana. “Most Northern Evacuees Unlikely to Return,
   Comptroller Says, Blaming Netanyahu.” The Times of Israel, June
   10, 2025. .
5. “Tel Aviv Cost of Living 2025: Rent, Prices & Housing.”
   Semerenko Group, May 16, 2026.
6. Karmel, Ariela, and Sam Sokol. Knesset approves 2026 budget,
   Israel’s largest ever, sending billions to Haredi institutions | The
   Times of Israel, March 30, 2026.
7. Chatelle, Theia. Traumatized by their last evacuation, many in
   Israel’s north are staying put despite renewed danger | The Times of
   Israel, March 20, 2026.
8. Sokol, Sam, and Ariela Karmel. Northern communities protest cuts
   to rehabilitation budget amid war | The Times of Israel, March 12,
   9. Sokol, Sam. Study: Ultra-Orthodox only pay 4% of total national
      taxes, costing economy billions | The Times of Israel, March 12, 2026.
9. Rappoport, Ben. Israeli researchers examine public health effects
   of rocket attacks on civilians | united with Israel, July 5, 2023.
10. Besser, A., & Neria, Y. (2009). PTSD symptoms, satisfaction with
    life, and prejudicial attitudes toward the adversary among Israeli
    civilians exposed to ongoing missile attacks. Journal of traumatic
    stress, 22(4), 268–275.