Tel-Chai Nation

The Coronavirus crisis continues in Israel, most unfortunately, and now, it turns out that Haredi neighborhoods in - but not limited to - Jerusalem, are still suffering serious cases of Coronavirus infections, and the Arabic neighborhoods are too. The Jerusalem Post says:

Haredi (ultra-Orthodox) areas of Jerusalem are becoming hot spots for the coronavirus, reminiscent of the first wave, a new report shows.

According to a report released Friday by the Coronavirus National Information and Knowledge Center, which is overseen by the IDF Intelligence Corps in cooperation with the Health Ministry, most of the new infections in Jerusalem in the past week are concentrated in haredi neighborhoods.

Some 37% of Jerusalem’s coronavirus patients are in the following neighborhoods: Ramot, Kiryat Sanz-Belz, Geula, Neve Yaakov, Mea She’arim, Tel Arza, Mahanayim, Ramot Bet, Har Nof, Habukharim, Makor Baruch, Kiryat Mattersdorf, Givat Hamivtar and Sanhedria Murhevet.

Until now, around 5% of people tested for coronavirus in the holy city tested positive. Last week, that number jumped to 7.4%.

However, in haredi neighborhoods, the average is 17%. Moreover, the number of infected people is doubling every four days; nationally, the number is doubling every seven days.

Of the 160 Jeursalemites diagnosed with coronavirus on July 1, 72 (45%) of them were from haredi neighborhoods. Another 26% were from Arab-Israeli neighborhoods, as there is also an increase in infection in east Jerusalem, the report said.

The number of active patients in east Jerusalem was 148 on Friday, 15% of all new patients in the city.

Israel HaYom noted this over a week ago. It looks like responsibility still isn't entirely being taken in such sectors. I sometimes ride the light rail train in Jerusalem, and once noticed that, in the Arabic neighborhood of Shuafat, there were quite a few people on the streets who didn't wear surgical masks. Not very responsible there either.

To make matters worse, there was another violent brawl in a Haredi neighborhood on Saturday night with police trying to give a woman a fine for not wearing a surgical mask:

Scuffles broke out between protesters and police attempting to enforce mask-wearing in Jerusalem late Saturday.

Two people were arrested during the melee in the capital’s ultra-Orthodox Mea Shearim neighborhood, police said.

According to police, the fighting broke out when officers attempted to write a ticket for a woman refusing to put a mask on her face in line with government rules to combat the spread of the coronavirus.

The woman refused to identify herself and dozens of others showed up and began fighting with police, including throwing stones at them, according to reports.

In a statement, the police said the protesters “obstructed the work [of the police], disturbed the peace and threw bottles and other things at officers.”

In video of the incident posted online by the Kikar Hashabbat news site, children can be heard calling the police Nazis.

No injuries were reported, and police said the woman was eventually served a citation.

But this demonstrates why the crisis could continue for too long, unless these neighborhoods, as prime carriers of the virus, are locked off firmly, based on the uncooperative behavior inside them. And serious enforcement will have to be carried out in any and all Arabic neighborhoods where this flouting is present as well. It's terrible that extremist ideologies are undermining efforts to deal with these problems more effectively.

Labels: haredi corruption, islam, Israel, Israeli Arabs, Jerusalem, Moonbattery