Billions for the North: After Months of Bureaucratic Gridlock, Israel Finally Moves to Rebuild the War-Scarred Galilee
The Knesset Finance Committee has at last approved a long-frozen transfer of NIS 1.2 billion (≈ $308 million) for the rehabilitation and revival of Israel’s battered northern frontiera lifeline that countless displaced families, shuttered businesses, and struggling municipalities have been waiting on for far too long.
The approval, delayed for nearly three months amid a bureaucratic tug-of-war between the committee’s legal advisers and the Finance Ministry, unlocks the first major injection of funding since the guns fell silent in Israel’s war against Hezbollaha war that turned once-thriving border towns into ghostly shells of their former selves.
Communities Left in Limbo
The delay wasn’t merely proceduralit was personal. For the 60,000 Israelis uprooted from their homes in the North between October 2023 and November 2024, every passing week without government assistance deepened despair.
The approved funds are designed to implement two critical government resolutions from July 2025, aimed squarely at reviving towns within two kilometers of the Lebanese border — areas emptied out under Hezbollah’s rain of rocketsand restarting economic and municipal life up to nine kilometers deep into the Galilee.
These aren’t abstract numbers. They represent entire communities still operating out of hotel rooms and temporary caravans, local councils on the brink of insolvency, and small business owners crushed under mounting debts while waiting for the state to keep its promises.
A Bureaucratic Saga
According to Adv. Shlomit Erlich, the committee’s legal adviser, the Treasury’s Budget Department initially submitted incomplete financial documentation and then stonewalled repeated requests for supplementary information.
“The Finance Ministry refused to provide key data,” Erlich explained, “only submitting the required details five days agoafter nearly three months of insistence.”
The revelation underscores a troubling pattern in the relationship between Israel’s civil service and its elected oversight bodies: bureaucratic inertia even in times of national trauma.
A Treasury representative quietly admitted that the committee’s first request for the information was sent back in August, meaning that the delay effectively froze emergency funds during the most critical reconstruction window — the months when displaced families were supposed to be returning home.
Local Leaders: ‘We’re Collapsing Under the Weight’
For local officials like Tzachi Chen, deputy head of the Ma’ale Yosef Regional Council, the delay has been devastating.
“They claim this process takes time,” Chen said bitterly, “but we don’t have time. We’ve already committed millions to contractorsand we’re collapsing under the weight. The funds must arrive now, not next month.”
Chen’s regiondotted with border kibbutzim and farming townswas among those hardest hit by Hezbollah’s drone and missile assaults, which targeted not only IDF positions but also agricultural and civilian infrastructure, leaving entire harvests destroyed and livelihoods shattered.
Politics, Perception, and Blame
Finance Committee Chair MK Hanoch Milwidsky pushed back against accusations that the committee itself had obstructed the transfer.
“Nothing was delayed here,” Milwidsky declared. “This was brought for discussion at the very first meeting once the legal department’s requirements were met.”
He added that while he did not believe the Finance Ministry “deliberately” sabotaged the process, the consequences of its negligence were severe.
“I call on Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich to do what’s necessary so that every shekel reaches the North as soon as possible.”
Milwidsky’s remarks reveal a broader frustration inside the coalition: the sense that too many ministries are still behaving as if the war is overwhen, for Israel’s North, the emergency is still ongoing.
The Bigger Picture: A NIS 15 Billion Promise Still on Paper
The government announced a five-year, NIS 15 billion master plan for the rehabilitation and development of the North back in October 2024, but much of that promise remains trapped in bureaucracy. Only a fraction of the funds has actually been disbursed, and dozens of local councils are now running emergency deficits to keep services running.
For many Israelis, the NIS 1.2 billion approved this week is both a victory and an indictmentproof that the money exists, but also that it takes public pressure and political embarrassment to get it moving.
From the North, a Warning
As Israel braces for possible renewed Hezbollah aggression, the situation in the North is a test of national resilience and governmental credibility. If the state cannot swiftly restore normalcy to its own citizens after war, what message does that sendto allies, to enemies, or to the Israeli public’s faith in its institutions?
The approval of these funds is therefore not merely a financial transaction. It is a statement of national responsibility — one that must now be matched by speed, transparency, and tangible results.
Because for the families of Kiryat Shmona, Metula, Shlomi, and dozens of other towns along the border, the war didn’t end when the sirens stopped. It ended only when home stops being a memory and becomes a place again.
