Tempers Flare In Beitar Illit As Government Clamps Lockdown On City

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    Police put up roadblocks in the ultra orthodox Jewish town of Beitar Illit outside of Jerusalem, which is under a week-long lockdown due to the high numers of newly infected with the Coronavirus, July 9, 2020. Photo by Nati Shohat/Flash90

    BEITAR ILLIT (VINnews) — More than 60,000 residents of the Chareidi city of Beitar Illit southwest of Jerusalem found themselves trapped and cut of from the rest of Israel after the government decided to impose a lockdown on the city due to the rising rate of COVID-19 patients being diagnosed in the city. For many people who work daily in nearby Jerusalem, the lockdown meant that they would not be able to support their families for an entire week. Hundreds of local residents fled the town before the onset of the lockdown at 1 PM Wednesday in order to continue their work in Jerusalem.

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    Beitar Illit mayor Meir Rubinstein complained on Radio Kol Chai that his city had been singled out indiscriminately despite other regions being more affected by coronavirus. Moreover he added that the first wave of COVID-19 had demonstrated clearly that the way to treat the pandemic was by quickly evacuating sick residents to hotels and hospitals and not by imposing a lockdown which forces the sick people to stay in the same cramped apartments with their large families, causing more and more people to be infected.

    Despite the government claiming that those possessing permits to work in essential services would be allowed to leave the city, residents were prevented Thursday morning from leaving the city even though they possessed such permits.

    Rivka, who works in a welfare institution in Jerusalem and is considered an essential worker, told Kikar Hashabat that “I arrived at the bus stop at 6:30 A.M. after we were told that the buses were working as normal but when we reached the entrance to the city we were taken off the buses while private cars continued to leave without being molested.

    ” We stood hundreds of people at the entrance to the city without any response and we tried to stop rides. Some people stopped buses and forced their way onto them, but most people were forced to return home and miss a day of work.”


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    Educated Archy
    Educated Archy
    3 years ago

    How does it work In israel when one cannot report to work due to covid related reasons and lockdowns? Is there unemployment? Is the govt offering stimulus or some other program? If not this would be quite cruel