Edo Konrad | Editor in Chief
Dear reader,
Six months ago, I wrote to you from my home in south Tel Aviv. It was Passover and the streets were disturbingly quiet. Israel had just gone into its first nationwide lockdown to combat the spread of COVID-19.
In those days, which now seem like years ago, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stood before us to describe how he was fighting a war against an "invisible enemy." Night after night, Netanyahu appeared on our screens announcing drastic measures taken by the new "unity government" to fight and contain the pandemic.
The directives were in part draconian, including the mass surveillance of the population by the Shin Bet, Israel’s internal security service, and the broadening of the state’s authority to make arrests. The government put the country under total lockdown, bringing it to a standstill, while economic anxiety and fear for our health pervaded every aspect of our lives. Within weeks, COVID-19 infection rates plummeted.
This happened because many believed, at least for a moment, that despite the deep-seated divisions, when it comes to a pandemic, the government still had the public's best interests at heart.
We were wrong. The country began re-opening, and Netanyahu, who gloated about defeating the virus, deftly returned to what matters most to him: deflecting from his corruption cases and ongoing trials to stay in power. No longer was Israel's wrecked economy or public health at the top of the agenda. The prime minister was now onto bigger and better things: trying to annex parts of the occupied West Bank, signing the so-called peace accords with the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, and delegitimizing the burgeoning protest movement demanding his ouster.
But the return to "normalcy" happened far too quickly and without any oversight. The infection rate started to rapidly climb again, only this time, the government stood back and watched the country reach the edge of the precipice. To say our leaders failed to contain the pandemic would be giving them far more credit than they deserve. Political infighting, a total disregard for expert opinions, and an unquenchable thirst to remain in power have brought us to the brink. Perhaps, like Trump, our leaders just thought it would somehow go away.
It didn’t, and today Israel is going into a second total lockdown. Netanyahu is already talking about declaring a national emergency that could potentially allow him to consolidate even greater power.
And all this from a government that came into existence for the stated purpose of fighting COVID-19 together. They literally had one job.
Walking around Tel Aviv these past few months, the number of shuttered businesses makes some parts of the city feel like a ghost town. A bottomed-out economy and soaring unemployment have exposed the fragility of the neoliberal state Netanyahu has helped build here for much of the past two decades. Working class Israelis and Palestinians will continue to bear the greatest brunt for the government’s indifference.
As Makbula Nassar reported this week, Israel's failure to conduct Arabic outreach and include Arab experts in its fight against the pandemic has made it harder to stem its spread in Palestinian towns inside Israel.
The people in charge don't care about those who live here — that much is clear. The next few weeks will be excruciating for many, both when it comes to our mental health as well as our pockets. But let us not forget that just half a year ago, gripped by fear of the unknown, this country saw remarkable expressions of solidarity between and among communities. From neighborhood mutual aid groups in cities like Haifa and Jaffa, to unity between ultra-Orthodox and Palestinian citizens, to factories in the West Bank and Gaza that overnight began producing masks and PPEs to be sold across the occupied territories.
Over the last few months, those tasked with protecting us have instead sown fear and division. But in the face of a reckless government that will be remembered as a dangerous, shambolic failure, we still have a choice: solidarity or barbarism.
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