Mayor Netivot: “Invest in industry and build a hospital, nothing will help”

“In the last seven years, the population has doubled in Netivot, I don’t know another city like it. We were 30,000 residents, and we have already passed the 60,000 mark. We have built residences, industrial and employment areas, thousands of new dunams that have been added to this city, along with commerce and industry within the city,” Netivot Mayor Yehiel Zohar said today (Mon), as part of the Globes Southern Business Conference, which is taking place today In the Peace Nationalist building in the city. “The first roof agreement that was signed was completed in six years instead of ten years, and these days we signed another roof agreement, 32 thousand additional units. This city, within a decade or 15 years, will pass the mark of 150,000 inhabitants, and can even reach 180,000 inhabitants. I always had a dream that this city, and all the surrounding settlements, would grow as much as possible,” Zohar added.

● Southern Business Conference CEO Strauss: “Almost all of our factories are in the north and south. And we will continue to invest”
● Southern Business Conference Alona Bar On: “We are already in the third year in the south, this is continuity and this is attention”

“We have built a great many public, educational and cultural institutions, not just residences, and continue to build on a very large scale. We have taken in 30,000 new residents, who brought with them new demands that we did not know before – education, culture, and more,” Zohar pointed out, “we are managing to meet these requests, and achieve many achievements. We already have 750 students from Navits and the region in the Schwartz-Reisman center for scientific education in the city; we have expanded the Noam industrial area From 4,000 dunams to 8,000 dunams; we opened the Hadassah branch, and a hospital will be built here – it won’t help anyone, not even Likud members who do everything to prevent this from happening.

“The city took itself into its own hands and did not wait for the state”

Zohar also spoke about the events of October 7, 2023 and their consequences: “October 7 did not pass us by. We experienced the first firing of the missiles into the area, we suffered a direct hit that hit an entire family – a son, father and grandfather were killed. But we recovered on our own. We were the first to close the city’s gates already at 7 in the morning. We thus prevented terrorists from entering the city. The terrorists at the city’s gates were not Baba Sali eliminated – these are our security guards. The city took itself into its own hands and did not wait for the state. We opened the education, the trade before everyone else, and today the roads are protected by its own people.

“I very much hope that soon we will know what happened on that black Sabbath, what happened before and what happened after, just so we can make amends. What is happening now in Gaza, especially in the north, must end, for the benefit of development and construction in these areas. If the situation remains in this format, I am disturbed, because the residents, both the new and the old, ask when it will end, and I have no answers. I am not waiting for answers from the American president, I am waiting for answers from my prime minister and my country, and I hope that they will They will arrive as soon as possible.”

Zohar said that he did not hesitate and does not hesitate to petition the High Court against the state: “They give budgets as part of Takuma to settlements up to 7 km, we are 8 km and do not receive budgets, so I went to the High Court.” According to Zohar: “I go to the High Court to change reality for the better and they help and I say this not from the left.”

During his remarks, Zohar commented to the mayor of Arad, Yair Maayan, who was sitting in the audience, about the image of his city: “It’s important that you don’t become Beit Shemesh,” he told him. “There is a large group, about 30% ultra-Orthodox, living here in Netivot, and I live with them with respect and love and I do everything so that they receive all the services – but I did not want to be Beit Shemesh and I will not be Beit Shemesh. Everything must be done, but everything, to provide this population with sources of employment, and I am happy that it can be said that in Netivot we live together in complete harmony. I want those people to integrate into the work in the Negev and be part of us fully, including service in the IDF. I’m doing everything to make it happen.”

Towards the end, Zohar turned to Yigal Demari, the owner of the YH Demari real estate company, who lived in Netivot and was also sitting in the audience, and told him: “I am happy that a person like you, who can live anywhere in Israel, chose to do it here – both to live and to establish the company’s offices. I promise everyone that this region will not stop, and will continue to grow, in order to achieve the greatest achievements.”

*** Full disclosure. The conference is held thanks to cooperation with Strauss Group, Bank Leumi and Netivot Municipality. Sponsored by: Diplomat, the Lottery and Radio South and with the participation of: Taglith and Makorum.