MK Ofer Cassif of the extreme-left Hadash party approached the Mayor of Kiryat Shmona, Avichai Stern, and asked to come and show his support for the residents, but was met with a refusal. "Hello Avichai, I am interested in coming to visit you, to strengthen and show support, and see if we can help," MK Cassif wrote to Stern and received a resolute response, “Hi Ofer, first of all, thank you for wanting to show your support for Kiryat Shmona, but unfortunately, before you offer your support, I suggest that you stop weakening us," the Mayor wrote to the Knesset member. He added, "For years you have been acting against our heroic IDF fighters, claiming that they are committing 'genocide' and going against the State of Israel and against the Zionist-Jewish vision of our wonderful nation, while accusing us of occupation, while every inch of land here is ours and only ours.” "On the day you change your anti-Zionist and anti-Jewish narrative, stop harming the state of the Jewish people and stop calling our heroic fighters 'murderers,' only then will we be happy to welcome you to Kiryat Shmona," concluded Stern. Cassif, who did not like the reaction, replied: "I stood and will continue to stand by all the residents of the bombed and burned communities of the north, which have been abandoned by the right-wing government, whether they are my supporters or my opponents. It's time to put an end to the tribalism that is destroying us, where we don’t operate according to principles of universal justice, but according to the closeness or identity of any specific person."
