Huddled, chinless crowd defied quarantine in Israel to attend funeral of ultra-Orthodox rabbi

In the middle of the third quarantine due to the new wave of coronavirus in Israel, thousands of ultra-orthodox Jews They violated health measures this Sunday and participated in the funeral of a rabbi who died, precisely, by Covid-19, at the age of 99.

Without respecting preventive social distancing or the use of masks in most cases, the tide of men, dressed in strict black, passed through the avenues of Rabbi Meshulam Dovid Soloveichik’s house in Jerusalem at Har Hamenuhot Cemetery. The police did not intervene.

“I am not going to face 20,000 people because I am not in a position to do so,” Israel police spokesperson for the ultra-Orthodox community, Shabtai Gerberchik, said in an interview with the radio station. Kan’s Moreshet.

The police calculated that more than 10,000 people joined the procession and claimed he imposed dozens of fines for failing to comply with detention rules.

“What can we do in this situation? Can I come in with the cavalry and the water cannons to interrupt the funeral procession? The law is very draconian, sometimes life is more complicated than anything else, and it is enough to minimize the damage, “added the spokesman for the police, quoted by the newspaper Haaretz.

The late Rabbi Soloveichik, who contracted the coronavirus before the Jewish holiday of Hanukkah in December and passed away this Saturday, was one of the spirit guides at the Brisk yeshiva (Talmudic school) in Jerusalem.

He was a member of a respected rabbinical dynasty and he was revered by all ultra-Orthodox factions.

Police not only argued that the procession was too large, but that Israeli society as a whole often violated the quarantine decreed by the pandemic and set an example of an underground party in Tel Aviv.

Strong criticism of the government

The massive funeral eclipsed the aggressive vaccination campaign and threatens to harm the prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the March elections. One of his rivals accused him of refusing to put pressure on the ultra-Orthodox because he aspires to votes in this sector.

However, the funeral procession generated a firm condemnation of Benny Gantz, the former number two in the already fractured government coalition and former head of the army.

“Either we close for everyone, or we open for everyone”, reprimanded Gantz, quoted by the Europa Press news agency.

“This is what the double standard in law enforcement looks like: Millions of families and children are locked inside their homes and playing by the rules, while thousands of ultra-Orthodox gather in the of a funeral, ”the head of the law posted on Twitter. Blue and White Coalition, the main opposition force in the last election, which for a year formed a government with Prime Minister Netanyahu.

Netanyahu and Gantz’s unity government – already bankrupt and to be renewed in March at the polls – will meet in the next few hours to discuss the extension of the third shutdown, which expires at midnight.

Gantz warned that he will not support extending the shutdown for another week unless police enforce violations by members of the the ultra-Orthodox community which ignores the quarantine.

He also called for higher fines for educational institutions that reopen without permission, usually ultra-Orthodox religious schools.

The pandemic in the ultra-Orthodox community

This opposition to pandemic prevention measures has obvious effects on this community.

Although representing 13% of the population, the ultra-Orthodox represent 40% of people infected with Covid-19.

Throughout the pandemic and the other two quarantines, hundreds and even thousands of members of this community reopened unlicensed schools and organized mass events, such as weddings, in which most of the guests did not obey the rules of social distancing or wearing masks.

Last week, when police attempted to disperse them, groups of ultra-Orthodox clashed with security forces and set a bus, with the driver and five passengers inside, on fire, which barely made it through. to escape.

Israel, a country of 9.3 million people, recently averaged more than 6,000 cases of coronavirus per day, one of the highest infection rates in the developing world.

At the same time, the Hebrew state has already vaccinated more than 3 million of its citizens with Pfizer-BioNTech serum, also one of the highest per capita rates in the world.

Health experts say it will take several weeks for the vaccination campaign to have an effect on infection and hospitalization rates.

But large public funerals like that of Soloveichik in Jerusalem and of a prominent Arab sheikh killed in Jaffa last week have thwarted efforts to prevent the spread of the disease.

Source: AFP, AP and DPA

CB