By Andrew Adler
Community Editor
Better Days: In the northern Israeli city of Akko, owner Idan Ishach Erez, at right, guides visitors through a banana grove whose fruit will later be dried and sold.
Consider the following statistic:
In 2003, the Northern Israeli city of Acre (better known outside Israel as Akko) could boast only a single bed and breakfast. Twenty years later there were close to 250 B&B’s and similar independent short-term rentals, reflecting a remarkable surge in tourism that attracted upward of 2 million visitors annually from inside and outside the country.
Then came a cruel double blow – Hamas’s October 7 attacks in Southern Israel, and Hezbollah’s ongoing rocket barrages launched from Lebanon in the North. Many residents had to be hastily relocated out of range of rocket assaults. Stores and hotels were shuttered. The area’s tourism industry, once the region’s principal economic engine, went into freefall.
“The war presents us with enormous challenges,” says Heidi Benish, the Israel-based coordinator of Partnership2Gether Western Galilee, which counts Louisville among its constituent cities. “Many businesses in the Western Galilee are struggling with heavy losses in sales, temporary closures, and even permanent shutdowns. Tourism, restaurants, agriculture and hospitality – central sectors in our region, have been hit particularly hard.”
When you live just a few miles from the Lebanese border, stress is an inevitable component of daily living. “It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say we are under quite a high level of tension right now,” Michael Aronson, a past Israel P2G co-chair, told participants during a recent Zoom call for P2G Western Galilee representatives.
“Beyond the rockets that are showered on us from time to time,” Aronson continued, “we’re all (wondering), will there be a response from the Iranians or from Hezbollah which would go beyond what we’ve been experiencing for the past 10 months.”
Iran’s April 13, 2024 mass rocket attacks on Israel marked a critical juncture amid the shadow war between the two nations. A further tipping point occurred on July 31, when agents — widely believed to be from Israel — assassinated Hamas political head Ismail Haniyeh by detonating a bomb hidden in his Tehran guest apartment.
The uncertainty about when and how Iran will react has been debilitating, Aronson says. “The general feeling is, ‘Do it already – let’s get it over with.’”
Idan Ishach Erez and her three children evacuated from the Akko area on Oct. 8, leaving behind her husband and what had been a thriving dried-fruit business. But the anguish of separation became so pronounced that two months ago, children in tow, Erez returned home. “My family was apart, and it was hard to keep everything together,” she told her Zoom friends, sharing screenshots of limes and lychees drying on racks of meticulously arrayed metal trays (“no added preservatives; no added sugar,” she pointed out proudly).
Even under the threat of Hezbollah rockets, coming back home was a collective relief for everyone involved. Still, considerable challenges remained, including the fact that most of their workers were still under evacuation.
Then, on March 21, a Hezbollah missile struck their main factory building, reducing much of the structure into heaps of twisted steel. Erez and her husband immediately set to rebuilding, only to see a second missile land on their property on June 28.
Since then, their main opponent has been the government’s arcane bureaucracy. They hope to be finished re-rebuilding by the end of August, when happiness can be defined largely by dried bananas and assorted fruit rollups.
“Idan, we appreciate you doing this, because so many of us have had the good fortune of going to your factory and experiencing your beautiful place. I know it’s not easy to talk on this level — you’ve been in our hearts.” said LaDona Fishkin, President of the Jewish Federation of Peoria.
The once-postponed 25th anniversary P2G Galilee trip is slated to take place this coming February in Akko and the Western Galilee, which will coincide with observances of Tu B’shevat – often referred to as “The New Year for Trees.”
Meanwhile, as Aronson emphasizes, “everyone in our region is doing their utmost to try and maintain some kind of regular routine – trying to maintain businesses as if there’s no war, despite the fact that there are missiles, sirens, calls to go into safe rooms, evacuations, and so on – stress is in the air.”
Perhaps no one appreciates those on-the-ground challenges better that Danny Arama, who heads up Akko’s main tourism office.
“I don’t know how many of you have visited or may visit Akko, but Akko is one of the most beautiful cities in Israel – one of its (principal) historical cities.” But “as you know, we’ve had a lot of crises in the last few years: first, the coronavirus, and after that, the riots we had” on the night of May 11, 2021, when Arab rioters tossed a Molotov cocktail into the Efendi Hotel, setting it ablaze and killing 84-year-old Avi Har-Even, formerly the head of Israel’s space program.
There was a degree of irony in that eruption of ethnic violence, because Akko had built a considerable reputation in fostering tolerance and cooperation between Arabs and Jews, who had lived peacefully in close proximity to each other. About 65 Jewish establishments were either destroyed or damaged during the riots.
Yet both sides managed to set aside threads of hatred and regain much of the squandered trust (2019 had seen the best-ever tourism numbers in Akko, where close to 2.3 million people visited the city.
It was all lost in the aftermath of Oct. 7, which “just killed all the tourism in the area,” Arama said – not only from international visitors, but from domestic Israeli travelers.
“In this region, 40 percent of the population depends on tourism as their source of employment,” said Michal Shiloah Galnoor, Managing Director of Western Galilee Now in Akko, “so the effect is huge. It’s devastating. The northern part of this region is closed and is a war zone completely. Then a few kilometers south, we’re not evacuated, (so) it’s where we all live. I live in a village seven kilometers from the border. It’s hard to live here right now But it’s my choice not to leave. For me, part of that choice is supporting, as much as I can, small businesses and tourism operators, because it’s heartbreaking.”
Akko itself is barely hanging on.
“The city is empty, just empty,” Arama added, more than a hint of fatigue and despair in his voice. “I’ve been working for 20 years with tourism in Akko, and I’ve never seen the city like this. It’s the first time I’ve seen the city just empty, without anyone coming inside. Anyone. And I don’t know what it will be like after the war. I don’t know if the city will wake up like we woke up from other crises.”
He lends assistance when he can, but there’s only so much one person can do. “We try to help them, together with the government, together with the tourism department,” Arama explained. “But it’s very hard, because there’s no one to come in and buy, or sleep in (B&Bs) and hotels.” He knows several owners who’ve effectively given up the fight. “A few businesses have closed, and a few businesses don’t want to open again.
The U.S.-based Federation representatives on the Zoom call clearly commiserated, while at the same time frustrated that they couldn’t do more. “I just wanted to tell you how hard it is for us to be watching, knowing so many of our friends we’ve made in the Western Galilee.”
Akko is a proudly multicultural, multiethnic community where Israelis and Arabs live in close proximity. The post-Oct. 7 environment, consequently, affects a diverse set of constituencies. Residents who live in Akko’s Old City “are buying in the market,” Arama said, but practically nobody else is – including Israelis who used to visit the historic city, but for now are avoiding it. No wonder the unemployment rate among local tour guides is nearly 100 percent.
So what can we in America do to help out beleaguered Partnership friends?
“Well, my obvious answer would be, come and visit us,” Aronson said. “But don’t do it right now. We are very much looking forward to you coming, but I would postpone coming until things are a little clearer.”
Akko is slated to host the 25th Anniversary Partnership2Gether international conference in February 2025. Already postponed once – the rescheduled gathering is again under threat from Hezbollah.
Regardless of such threats, American Federation reps are determined to keep Israel as a destination country. “I’ve been there a zillion times,” Toledo’s Fagie Benstein declared in a voice steely with determination, “and I hope to continue my pattern of a zillion times.”