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Coronavirus pandemic
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Israel will impose a new national blockade to contain the spread of the coronavirus, with strict restrictions that will take effect on the Jewish New Year.
The second blockade of the country begins on Friday and lasts at least three weeks.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the measures “would impose a heavy price on all of us” but that the country was facing an increase of 4,000 new infections a day.
A minister has resigned to protest restrictions that overlap with major Jewish festivals.
Housing Minister Yaakov Litzman, who heads an ultra-Orthodox Jewish party, said the measures would prevent Jews from celebrating their religious festivals, including Yom Kippur, the holiest day on the Jewish calendar, on September 27.
He also threatened to remove his party from the ruling coalition.
The country has seen 1,108 deaths from Covid-19 and more than 153,000 confirmed infections, according to a global tally by Johns Hopkins University.
What are the new restrictions?
Israel, which has a population of about 9 million, has reported more than 3,000 new cases a day in recent weeks.
In a televised speech on Sunday, the prime minister said this had risen to 4,000 daily.
The measures he announced will be the most extensive imposed in Israel since the first shutdown, which ran from late March to early May, and include:
- No more than 10 people can meet indoors, while groups of 20 are allowed outdoors.
- Schools and shopping centers will close, and Israelis must stay within 500 meters of their homes, with the exception of traveling to workplaces.
- Non-governmental offices and companies can remain open, but must not accept clients.
- However, supermarkets and pharmacies may remain open to the public.
Netanyahu acknowledged the disruption that closure would cause to Jewish communities that celebrate religious holidays in which families normally come together.
“This is not the type of holiday we are used to. And we certainly won’t be able to celebrate it with our extended families,” he said.
Restrictions on indoor gatherings will seriously affect prayers in synagogues.
The second lockdown will cost the economy, which is in recession due to the pandemic, some 6.5 billion shekels ($ 1.88 billion), the Finance Ministry says.
What did Yaakov Litzman say?
Litzman said in his resignation letter Friday: “This hurts and despises hundreds of thousands of citizens.
“Where have you been until now? Why have the Jewish holidays become a convenient direction to fight the coronavirus?”
image copyrightfake imagesInterior Minister Aryeh Deri, who leads another ultra-Orthodox party, said in a video posted on Twitter that he supported the planned restrictions and that failure to abide by them would amount to murder.
Addressing the cabinet when it met to vote on the shutdown on Sunday, Netanyahu said he regretted Litzman’s resignation.
He added: “We have to move on, to make the necessary decisions for Israel in the era of the coronavirus, and that is what we will do in this session.”
Netanyahu has faced criticism for his handling of the outbreak. Critics say its inability to fight the virus effectively has led to another national lockdown.
Many nations are experiencing second waves of the virus. However, most governments are now imposing smaller local closures in affected areas, rather than general national closures.
