Immediately upon landing in Israel this week, everyone on my flight frantically turned on their phones to view the return of our hostages. As I approached passport control, I wept, watching Mandy and Emily Damari share what was surely the best hug ever.
For the past 15 months, our hearts have been turned towards the communities of the Gaza corridor who have experienced unimaginable suffering. Thanks to their resilience and access to support, including that of the British Jewish community through UJIA, green shoots of recovery are already visible through the cloud of grief and trauma that will never completely disappear.
But in Israel, there is another deeply troubling and worrying consequence of this war; the ramifications for those living in and from the North. During October 2023, more than 80,000 people were evacuated from the North, leaving some communities with only a skeleton civilian presence. Precious start-ups permanently relocated to the centre of the country or closed. Schools and colleges, including those built over the years by UJIA, were mothballed shut. Even outside of the designated evacuation zone (0 to 5km from the border) relentless rocket fire has left many, especially young people, profoundly traumatised.
Pic: UJIA
There is now great trepidation about how a government-mandated return to the North, expected for March 1st, will work in practice. Even before the war, access to medical facilities, transportation links, quality education and skilled employment were serious challenges in the region.
UJIA leadership this week spent two days in the North, assessing and understanding the needs, listening to local people and considering how our limited funds can best make a difference.
We visited Kibbutz Manara, where you could previously sit on your balcony, drink a beer and wave sardonically at Hezbollah. No more. It is currently empty of civilians with houses on one entire side of the kibbutz destroyed by Hezbollah rockets. Manara is so close to the border with Lebanon that there is not even a second of warning before a direct hit (even on the Gaza border one has 15 seconds to get to a shelter). Manara’s older residents are determined to return as soon as possible but if young families don’t feel they can do so safely then what is the future of the community?
Pic: UJIA
Kiryat Shmona, the largest community in the region, still feels like a ghost town. Dedicated teachers in the town are preparing to take back their evacuated students, currently scattered over 500 different locations, many of whom have fallen through the gaps and avoided school since they were evacuated. Large numbers of homes are uninhabitable in Kiryat Shmona due to extensive damage from rockets and having been forcibly evacuated for many months. No one expected to be displaced for this long.
In downtown Tiberius, we meet in the evening with a group of teenage girls from moshavim on the border. They have been evacuated for 15 months to one room per family in local hotels including some that rent rooms by the hour. It’s unclear how many of the girls have parental supervision and their UJIA-supported Madrichim are their daily lifeline. The girls talk in the same breath about their excitement to return to the privacy of their old bedrooms and their terror of more rockets.
We pray that the ceasefire in the North will hold as the six-week mark approaches. If it does, it is still expected that around a third of evacuees will choose not to return to the North having settled in communities that offer far better educational and employment opportunities. A high percentage of those who will return are likely to be those who rely on state social support and won’t have any other option other than to return once the monthly government stipends for evacuees end.
Mandie Winston is CEO of UJIA
Without a strong civilian presence on the Northern border with Lebanon, we are left with a profound strategic threat to Israel.
The good news is that community leadership in the region is rising to the challenge. Municipalities that have historically competed with each other now understand the need to work together. Religious and secular Jews together with Druze and Muslims, men and women, all sit together around the same table determined to focus on the 80% of issues that they agree on: that they can only thrive if they attract families back to their communities. The education and employment sectors require long-term financial investment from the government, the private sector and philanthropy to truly build back better.
Pic: UJIA
For now, UJIA’s work supporting at-risk young people evacuated from the North must transition to targeted support of those same young people as they return home. Most have huge learning gaps and ex-perience active trauma. This work is urgent and vital.
Despite the daunting challenges and devastation, we left with hope. The dogged determination, passion and goodwill of civil society, political leadership, entrepreneurs, farmers and educators means that the situation can be turned around if resources are available. As they said, “Ein Breira; there is no other choice. If we don’t rebuild the North, then it impacts the security of the whole country. This is the true meaning of Zionism in 2025.”
But they do feel forgotten, by the government who can only offer limited support for recovery, and by the world. We, the British Jewish community need to stand at their side, offering solidarity and tangible help, as so many of us have done for the communities of the South through fundraising, hostage campaigning and people-to-people connections. Our hearts are big enough for both.
- Mandie Winston, chief executive, UJIA
