Israel will restore new containment across the country next week in the hope of stemming a second wave of SARS-CoV-2 contamination. Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu made the announcement in a televised speech on Sunday, September 13. “Today, the government has decided to implement a strict three-week lockdown with the option to extend this measure”said the Israeli prime minister, whose country thus becomes the first developed economy to take such a step.
The second confinement will begin on Friday, September 18, the eve of the Jewish New Year, for the feast of Rosh Hashanah (Jewish New Year), will continue during Yom Kippur and will end on the last day of Sukkot, around October 9, the authorities said. Schools, restaurants, shopping malls and hotels will have to close and travel restrictions will be imposed. The confinement is expected to last at least three weeks, by which time the measures could be relaxed.
“I know very well that these measures impose a heavy price on all of us (…) It is not a holiday season as usual, we will certainly not be able to celebrate with our extended families”, added Benyamin Netanyahu, specifying that prayers to ten people maximum would be allowed in closed places and to twenty people in open places.
Authorities last week imposed a curfew on around 40 cities across the country, including ultra-Orthodox Arab and Jewish cities, which hasn’t stopped the number of cases from rising. The infection rate in the country is on the rise with currently 153,217 cases of Covid-19, including 1,103 deaths, for a population of nine million inhabitants.
Yaacov Litzman, leader of the ultra-Orthodox Agudat Israel party and key ally of Mr. Netanyahu, had resigned earlier Sunday from his post as minister to protest against the plan for general reconfinement in Israel. Mr. Litzman, who was also Minister of Health at the start of the pandemic before being “transferred” to housing, accused the government of seeking to reimpose a lockdown from the Rosh Hashanah holidays while measures ” required “ could, according to him, have been taken before.
Poorly respected physical distancing measures
From the start of the pandemic, Israel had closed schools and non-essential businesses, imposed the wearing of masks in public places and prohibited citizens from leaving their homes. The first foci of contagion had been identified in ultra-Orthodox sectors or cities, where physical distancing measures had not or little been followed. This moreover placed Yaacov Litzman in an embarrassment, because at the same time leader of Agudat Israel and minister of health, which made him the voice of the governmental message in these communities.
“Hundreds of thousands of Jews from all populations and from all walks of life” will not be able to pray in synagogues during the Jewish New Year holidays, Litzman lamented in his resignation letter. “This decision to impose a total closure will not allow synagogues to operate on public holidays (…) contrary to what had been expressly agreed ”, he added. Benyamin Netanyahu said “Really regret” Mr. Litzman’s decision to leave government to regain his only seat as an MP, while adding that his government should “Make the necessary decisions for Israel in these times of corona”.
In recent months, in the wake of deconfinement, the ultra-Orthodox have said they have respected the instructions, which has not prevented the country from experiencing a new wave. According to AFP data, the Hebrew state is, behind Bahrain, the second country in the world to have recorded the most cases of SARS-CoV-2 contamination per capita in the past two weeks.
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