Political and Business Leaders Converge on Galilee Northern Border to Demand National Focus on Rebuilding North
KIRYAT SHMONA, ISRAEL, October 21, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ -- One week before Israel’s national election, hundreds of guests including political leaders, mayors, investors, entrepreneurs, business executives and residents gathered Tuesday in Kiryat Shmona on the Galilee northern border to put the rebuilding of northern Israel at the center of the national agenda after three years of war.
The “Choosing the North: From Reconstruction to Israel’s Next Growth Engine” conference, organized by TheMarker and Margalit Startup City Galil, focused on the economic choices facing Israel’s next government: how to restore population and employment, attract companies and private investment, rebuild infrastructure and turn a region devastated by war and prolonged evacuation into a major engine of national growth.
At the center of the conference, Dr. Erel Margalit, founder and executive chairman of JVP and Margalit Startup City, called for a large-scale government incentive program to bring businesses and workers back to the Galilee, modeled on previous state efforts to develop new economic centers in Israel.
“When we came from the Knesset to the Galilee more than a decade ago, it was not clear what this region could lead Israel in, including Kiryat Shmona, which was one of the cities with the highest levels of debt,” Margalit said. “But ultimately we saw that the North could lead Israel as a center of food technology, agriculture and climate. That is our vision, and we will continue to pursue it. Before the war there were 204 technology companies here in these fields. When the Hezbollah attacks began, this entire region was evacuated, and almost all of those startups disappeared from here. In Beersheba, the government previously subsidized 40% of an employee’s salary for five years, up to a salary of $10,000 a month. What we are asking for is something similar in the Galilee for the next five years: zero income tax and 50% of the salary for every company that hires an employee here. We need a new chapter for the north and a new chapter for Israel.”
The conference brought together candidates from several political parties to set out competing approaches to northern recovery ahead of the October 27 election.
MK Naama Lazimi, No. 2 on The Democrats’ list, argued that tax incentives alone would not be sufficient and called for direct government investment in housing, infrastructure and public services.
“Putting one Band-Aid on top of another will not work after a crisis of this magnitude. The neglect was not created by the war; it is the result of years of neglect,” Lazimi said. “Tax benefits are not enough for the North. We need grants and housing subsidies. Israeli society is magnificent and pioneering. It mobilizes in a crisis and knows how to act. But when the state does not provide the investment and infrastructure that are required, we undermine renewal and rebuilding. At Tel-Hai University, I met people saying, ‘I want to build a family here,’ and ‘I fell in love with the North and I want my life to be here.’ But that desire alone is not enough.”
Keren Turner, a candidate for Naftali Bennett’s Beyachad party and former director general of the Finance and Transportation ministries, proposed a package of fiscal incentives aimed at attracting both residents and employers to northern Israel.
“We want to provide an income-tax exemption on annual income of up to NIS 1 million so that high-income earners come to the North, together with a 45% reduction in municipal property tax,” Turner said. “To ensure there is employment here as well, we will provide reduced corporate taxation and municipal-tax discounts. Just as there is a Tekuma Law, there needs to be a law for the confrontation line. That would not only restore confidence, but would allow benefits to be provided and make it much easier to operate. Today there are incentives where, in the fine print, companies are required to meet certain levels of exports or foreign tourism. The North needs something completely different.”
Shaul Meridor, former head of the Finance Ministry’s Budget Department and a member of Yashar! with Eisenkot, said northern recovery would require both a reallocation of national resources and a new model of government accountability centered in the region itself.
“We met residents and mayors who told us, ‘We do not believe a single word you say,’” Meridor said. “There needs to be an authority established by law, with a budget and targets that it will be responsible for delivering, and it needs to sit here. The government should come here rather than asking Avichai Stern, the mayor of Kiryat Shmona, to come to Jerusalem. Any reasonable manager understands that this is how it needs to work. We will bring defense spending down to around 5%–6% of GDP. We will work for you. Get used to it.”
The scale of the challenge was underscored by Kiryat Shmona Mayor Avichai Stern, who said the city remains far below its pre-war population, with approximately 16,000 residents today compared with around 26,000 before the war.
“Kiryat Shmona and the Upper Galilee paid a heavy price in the war. Residents left their homes, businesses were damaged, and entire systems had to contend with an impossible reality,” Stern said. “Alongside dealing with the damage, we have to look forward and ask one central question: Will we settle for rebuilding what existed before, or use this opportunity to build something bigger? The North cannot settle for a return to routine. We need real reconstruction that includes engines of growth, high-quality jobs and attracting people to the region, more than has been done until now. We need to attract young people and build a strong, independent economy.”
Stern said roughly 40% of Kiryat Shmona’s pre-war population has yet to return, with security concerns remaining a major barrier for many families.
Tali Tzur Avner, CEO of Jewish National Fund-USA in Israel, presented the organization’s long-term goal of bringing 300,000 additional residents to northern Israel, arguing that population growth would depend on employment, education and quality of life rather than funding alone.
“For the past three decades, our organization has set itself the goal of increasing population growth in the North and bringing 300,000 people here,” Tzur Avner said. “For that to happen, it is not enough simply to transfer money. We have built a network of partnerships with companies and entrepreneurs in the region to bring businesses here and develop the local economy, to create more economic activity, bring jobs here, improve education and raise the quality of life.”
Imad Telhami, founder and chairman of Babcom Centers, said bringing Arab society more fully into the regional economy should also be viewed as a national growth opportunity.
“Investing in Arab society is a winning card for the State of Israel,” Telhami said. “As people say in the investment world, Arab society can become a source of national growth for the country and deliver one of the greatest returns.”
Israeli and Lebanese investors agree to establish regional innovation roundtable
The conference also produced an unprecedented public exchange on the Israel-Lebanon border between Margalit and Jean Salame, a Lebanese private equity investor and entrepreneur, who joined by video to discuss economic cooperation, innovation and the possibility of building new regional ties.
“There is a silent majority that wants cooperation with Israel,” Salame said. “The problem in Lebanon is that people have been living in survival mode for decades, without governance and functioning institutions, because of corruption and many other factors. Some Lebanese businesspeople abroad already have strategic partnerships with major American technology companies, providing products and services and, as a direct result, creating high-tech jobs in Lebanon. They told me that some of their strongest supporters inside those companies were Israeli engineers who pushed those deals and partnerships forward. It is time for us, the businesspeople, to say something different from what the politicians are saying.”
During the exchange, Margalit set out his vision for using innovation, investment and entrepreneurship to develop practical economic cooperation across the Middle East. Margalit and Salame agreed on stage to convene a follow-up meeting of Israeli, Lebanese and other regional investors and business leaders in a neutral country, and to establish a joint roundtable aimed at identifying concrete opportunities for cooperation through technology and innovation.
The agreement marked a practical next step from the public discussion, with the two committing to begin bringing together investors and entrepreneurs around potential areas of shared economic interest.
Senior participants in the conference also included northern municipal leaders and executives and representatives from Tel-Hai University, MIGAL Research Institute, Cisco, Bank Hapoalim, Earnix, ThetaRay, JVP, GAIA Partners, Fresh Start and the regional agrifood-tech ecosystem, as well as Uri Ben-Herzel, CEO of MIGAL Research Institute; Eric Dayan of Tel-Hai University; and Ofer Rivlin, CEO of the Agrifood-Tech Administration.
The “Choosing the North: From Reconstruction to Israel’s Next Growth Engine” conference, organized by TheMarker and Margalit Startup City Galil, focused on the economic choices facing Israel’s next government: how to restore population and employment, attract companies and private investment, rebuild infrastructure and turn a region devastated by war and prolonged evacuation into a major engine of national growth.
At the center of the conference, Dr. Erel Margalit, founder and executive chairman of JVP and Margalit Startup City, called for a large-scale government incentive program to bring businesses and workers back to the Galilee, modeled on previous state efforts to develop new economic centers in Israel.
“When we came from the Knesset to the Galilee more than a decade ago, it was not clear what this region could lead Israel in, including Kiryat Shmona, which was one of the cities with the highest levels of debt,” Margalit said. “But ultimately we saw that the North could lead Israel as a center of food technology, agriculture and climate. That is our vision, and we will continue to pursue it. Before the war there were 204 technology companies here in these fields. When the Hezbollah attacks began, this entire region was evacuated, and almost all of those startups disappeared from here. In Beersheba, the government previously subsidized 40% of an employee’s salary for five years, up to a salary of $10,000 a month. What we are asking for is something similar in the Galilee for the next five years: zero income tax and 50% of the salary for every company that hires an employee here. We need a new chapter for the north and a new chapter for Israel.”
The conference brought together candidates from several political parties to set out competing approaches to northern recovery ahead of the October 27 election.
MK Naama Lazimi, No. 2 on The Democrats’ list, argued that tax incentives alone would not be sufficient and called for direct government investment in housing, infrastructure and public services.
“Putting one Band-Aid on top of another will not work after a crisis of this magnitude. The neglect was not created by the war; it is the result of years of neglect,” Lazimi said. “Tax benefits are not enough for the North. We need grants and housing subsidies. Israeli society is magnificent and pioneering. It mobilizes in a crisis and knows how to act. But when the state does not provide the investment and infrastructure that are required, we undermine renewal and rebuilding. At Tel-Hai University, I met people saying, ‘I want to build a family here,’ and ‘I fell in love with the North and I want my life to be here.’ But that desire alone is not enough.”
Keren Turner, a candidate for Naftali Bennett’s Beyachad party and former director general of the Finance and Transportation ministries, proposed a package of fiscal incentives aimed at attracting both residents and employers to northern Israel.
“We want to provide an income-tax exemption on annual income of up to NIS 1 million so that high-income earners come to the North, together with a 45% reduction in municipal property tax,” Turner said. “To ensure there is employment here as well, we will provide reduced corporate taxation and municipal-tax discounts. Just as there is a Tekuma Law, there needs to be a law for the confrontation line. That would not only restore confidence, but would allow benefits to be provided and make it much easier to operate. Today there are incentives where, in the fine print, companies are required to meet certain levels of exports or foreign tourism. The North needs something completely different.”
Shaul Meridor, former head of the Finance Ministry’s Budget Department and a member of Yashar! with Eisenkot, said northern recovery would require both a reallocation of national resources and a new model of government accountability centered in the region itself.
“We met residents and mayors who told us, ‘We do not believe a single word you say,’” Meridor said. “There needs to be an authority established by law, with a budget and targets that it will be responsible for delivering, and it needs to sit here. The government should come here rather than asking Avichai Stern, the mayor of Kiryat Shmona, to come to Jerusalem. Any reasonable manager understands that this is how it needs to work. We will bring defense spending down to around 5%–6% of GDP. We will work for you. Get used to it.”
The scale of the challenge was underscored by Kiryat Shmona Mayor Avichai Stern, who said the city remains far below its pre-war population, with approximately 16,000 residents today compared with around 26,000 before the war.
“Kiryat Shmona and the Upper Galilee paid a heavy price in the war. Residents left their homes, businesses were damaged, and entire systems had to contend with an impossible reality,” Stern said. “Alongside dealing with the damage, we have to look forward and ask one central question: Will we settle for rebuilding what existed before, or use this opportunity to build something bigger? The North cannot settle for a return to routine. We need real reconstruction that includes engines of growth, high-quality jobs and attracting people to the region, more than has been done until now. We need to attract young people and build a strong, independent economy.”
Stern said roughly 40% of Kiryat Shmona’s pre-war population has yet to return, with security concerns remaining a major barrier for many families.
Tali Tzur Avner, CEO of Jewish National Fund-USA in Israel, presented the organization’s long-term goal of bringing 300,000 additional residents to northern Israel, arguing that population growth would depend on employment, education and quality of life rather than funding alone.
“For the past three decades, our organization has set itself the goal of increasing population growth in the North and bringing 300,000 people here,” Tzur Avner said. “For that to happen, it is not enough simply to transfer money. We have built a network of partnerships with companies and entrepreneurs in the region to bring businesses here and develop the local economy, to create more economic activity, bring jobs here, improve education and raise the quality of life.”
Imad Telhami, founder and chairman of Babcom Centers, said bringing Arab society more fully into the regional economy should also be viewed as a national growth opportunity.
“Investing in Arab society is a winning card for the State of Israel,” Telhami said. “As people say in the investment world, Arab society can become a source of national growth for the country and deliver one of the greatest returns.”
Israeli and Lebanese investors agree to establish regional innovation roundtable
The conference also produced an unprecedented public exchange on the Israel-Lebanon border between Margalit and Jean Salame, a Lebanese private equity investor and entrepreneur, who joined by video to discuss economic cooperation, innovation and the possibility of building new regional ties.
“There is a silent majority that wants cooperation with Israel,” Salame said. “The problem in Lebanon is that people have been living in survival mode for decades, without governance and functioning institutions, because of corruption and many other factors. Some Lebanese businesspeople abroad already have strategic partnerships with major American technology companies, providing products and services and, as a direct result, creating high-tech jobs in Lebanon. They told me that some of their strongest supporters inside those companies were Israeli engineers who pushed those deals and partnerships forward. It is time for us, the businesspeople, to say something different from what the politicians are saying.”
During the exchange, Margalit set out his vision for using innovation, investment and entrepreneurship to develop practical economic cooperation across the Middle East. Margalit and Salame agreed on stage to convene a follow-up meeting of Israeli, Lebanese and other regional investors and business leaders in a neutral country, and to establish a joint roundtable aimed at identifying concrete opportunities for cooperation through technology and innovation.
The agreement marked a practical next step from the public discussion, with the two committing to begin bringing together investors and entrepreneurs around potential areas of shared economic interest.
Senior participants in the conference also included northern municipal leaders and executives and representatives from Tel-Hai University, MIGAL Research Institute, Cisco, Bank Hapoalim, Earnix, ThetaRay, JVP, GAIA Partners, Fresh Start and the regional agrifood-tech ecosystem, as well as Uri Ben-Herzel, CEO of MIGAL Research Institute; Eric Dayan of Tel-Hai University; and Ofer Rivlin, CEO of the Agrifood-Tech Administration.
Raoul Wootliff
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