The worsening Corona crisis has led the Israeli government to (again) impose a “lock-down” in an attempt to bring down the number of new infections and halt the spread of the disease.
The lock-down comes with many, sometimes very confusing rules and limitations, all of which have exemptions and it is just further proof that the Israeli government handling of the most devastating crisis in its history, is incompetent and mostly politically controlled.
The lock-down limits people from leaving their house beyond a one kilometer radius for non-essential purposes and does not allow gatherings outside of more than twenty people, with even less than that in closed spaces. While many will say that the lock-down was imposed mainly, if not only, to stop the demonstrations against Netanyahu, while at the same time create some parity between demonstrating and prayer services in synagogues, limiting the gathering of large groups of people does appear to make sense in efforts to stop the spread of the virus.
So how did this work out so far?
The demonstrations did not stop but took on a very different form, with people in small groups, gathering at intersections and bridges, showing that their displeasure cannot be erased by politically motivated restrictions. Small-scale demonstrations were held in Tel Aviv, where the police intervened aggressively and fines were handed out for lock-down violations, mainly the “one kilometer rule”. The tactics used by the police reminded of the old Western movies, where cowboys would round up the cow herds by locking them in in small spaces to brand them. The Tel Aviv police did the same herding, and when all demonstrators were locked in they handed out fines. (should we be thankful they didn’t brand the demonstrators?). However, while the number of people feeling the need to express their anger sharply increased compared to the past few weeks, no serious lock-down infractions were reported, except in some instances in Tel Aviv.
The Ultra-orthodox community gathered in very large numbers in synagogues and on the streets to celebrate “Simchat Torah” and singing and dancing took place in all Haredi cities, including Bnei Brak, Jerusalem, Modi’in Ilit, Bet Shemesh and others. Violence erupted here and there a number of times and unpleasant footage was shown on Social Media and on TV. But in sharp contrast to the demonstrations, lock-down violations were rampant and blatant and even some of the Haredi leaders insisted that celebrating the Jewish holyday is more important than public health. The infection rate in Haredi cities today has reached 25%, the number of deaths has risen sharply as well and it doesn’t appear the population is impressed or scared. Apparently the promise by their leaders that “God will protect us” is more appealing than anything a physician can tell them.
Quickly, opinions started to be put forward that the Ultra-Orthodox population is responsible for the spread of the virus, the Haredim are killing us all, and questions were asked why doesn’t the police interfere. No doubt, with such high infection rates, the chances of passing on the virus increase sharply and the fear and the suspicion of the Haredim appears justified.
Is it really?
Throughout the Corona crisis, and in particular during the last holyday period, reports have been aired of violations of the Corona rules by people who should be an example and who should and sadly enough also do, know better.
It started during the first wave, with our President, Reuven Rivlin, and our Prime Minister Netanyahu but since then, the list has grown at a very scary pace and now includes at least three more ministers (Gila Gamliel, Yoav Gallant and Yaakov Litzman, with the latter, while being already sick with the virus attending a prayer service), members of parliament, the IDF Chief of Staff, the head of the Intelligence service (Shin Bet) and the wife of the Prime Minister). And these are only the ones that were “caught”. No doubt, for every one that was found out violating the lock-down, there are 5 or 10 that did so as well but were lucky enough not to have been recorded doing so.
And how about us?
The lockdown allows only travel for essential reasons (food purchase, medicine, doctors’ visits) and workplaces are allowed to operate only with special permits. Yet during the week, the roads were crowded almost as usual, definitely in the center of the country. Beaches, parks and gardens were full of people, and even shops were open here and there, with restaurants devising intricate methods to circumvent the rules and allow customers to order and buy food. It appears the lock-down was looked upon by many of us, as something of a recommendation that could be ignored if inconvenient or unpleasant. While in most cases people did wear facemasks, that was practically the only rule that was more or less adhered to. Even the police, who is supposed to enforce the lock-down, appeared to be reluctant to act decisively. At the demonstrations, and sometimes also with the prayer services, which are both high-profile events, the police did intervene, but even though many road-blocks all over the country were set up, causing immense traffic jams, in most cases apart from causing these traffic jams, the officers manning the road-blocks didn’t appear to have very clear orders to check travelers.
So why aren’t we like Sweden, where indeed recommendations were sufficient to make people follow the rules and bring the virus under control? Is it the behavior of our leadership, that also large-scale ignored the rules? No doubt, hearing almost daily about some “leader” who violated orders that they were constantly urging the population to follow, did not help to motivate us simple people to do as we are told. And it is definitely true that, while in countries with a properly functioning government, it is a lot easier to believe that what you are advised (or ordered) to do is indeed advised or ordered in your own best interest, while in Israel of today, every move made by the government is either made to support Netanyahu in his war against the legal system, or is made to make sure Netanyahu can appease his coalition partners and stay in power. The lack of trust in the people who are entrusted with leading us through the biggest crisis in the history of the state definitely causes rampant violations of the Corona lock-down orders.
But there is more than meets the eye here. You only have to look at traffic and the behavior of Israeli drivers to know that in general, Israelis see orders and rules as “recommendations” only. Recommendations that you can ignore. After all, who are “they” to tell us what to do? We are Israeli, we decide what is good for us. We decide what we are allowed to do. We decide that rules and regulations are good for others, but not for us. Apparently, a long history of distrust (and maybe also education), has led to a general atmosphere of acceptable unruly behavior. While elsewhere people understand and accept that rules are (mostly) made for their own good, made by people who they can trust and it is in their best interest to follow those rules, in Israel, this trust in authority is lacking and in dire situations like the Corona crisis, this lack of trust manifests itself even stronger, and complete anarchy results. It is not noticeable most of the time, except for events like demonstrations or prayer services, but in the end the cost of this anarchy will be much higher, and we will be the ones to pay.
So why are the infection rates dropping? Maybe the Ultra-orthodox are right after all and all we need to do is trust in God. Maybe, the prevailing attitude of “it won’t happen to me” indeed is the right response to the crisis. Maybe, the infection rate is a circular series of events, with up and down periods. Maybe there are nevertheless several people who did feel the need to abide by the rules and they brought the infection rate down. None of this though is any consolation to the relatives and friends of over two thousand people who lost their lives to this virus in Israel. Or to the many thousands that are called “recovered” but will feel the effects of the disease for months and maybe years to come.
And abiding by the rules may help us prevent becoming one of those. Even if we are convinced “it won’t happen to me”.
I hope you found this article interesting and I welcome any comments you may have.
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