The worst is the families who leave. I personally know 17 families who are planning to leave in the summer. It's a terrible situation, because it affects our entire lives. The moment people don't use the highway, life stops, the economy collapses, people are afraid to travel and they start to think about leaving. Imagine the effect that it has in the schools, in the communities and in all aspects of life.
People feel that they have been abandoned.
If they want us to leave, let them say so, and we'll get up and go. That the state tell us what it wants. It's our lifeline. Slow death of Beit She'an Beit She'an Mayor Pini Kabalo says that the fact that travelers have fled the Jordan Valley highway has killed his city. The shopping centers flourished thanks to the dozens of tourist buses which made pit stops on their way to Tiberias or the Golan Heights.