After the closure of haredi Ashdod this morning, haredi daily Hamodia attacks the Health Ministry, claiming the haredi public has lost faith in Ministry personnel.
"In the first coronavirus wave, the National Security Council directed the fire towards the haredi public, in part thanks to the behind-the-scenes activity of the Prime Minister who is considered an expert at finding culprits who aren't named 'Binyamin Netanyahu', and all the public outrage was directed at the haredi public," explains Hamodia reporter Yaakov Reinitz.
He said, "The blatant closure imposed on Bnei Brak with no administrative preparation but only to mark the scapegoat has seriously damaged the image of the haredi public. Hospitals have marked us to the point that it endangers lives, and in the economic sphere until today business in Bnei Brak haven't recovered as a result."
In retrospect, he said, serious economic harm was caused: "The sales curve in stores dropped significantly since people outside the city are already arriving in smaller numbers. There's hardly a business in Bnei Brak that was not hurt as a result of the closure imposed three months ago and quite a few reached bankruptcy - all as a result of a reckless decision that the NSC, backed by Netanyahu, pushed.
"The closure, it turned out in retrospect, was completely unnecessary. As city residents, we can attest that a week before the closure, the city's streets were deserted. Those who did not have to leave, remained home. The closure only caused tremendous damage to city residents. This is also true of the closure imposed on neighborhoods in Jerusalem and Beit Shemesh.
"At the conclusion of the incident, it became clear that collaboration with the mayors to remove patients from homes to hotels and increase enforcement is the most effective way to cut the infection rate, but when the media needs blood, there's nothing like diverting the fire towards the haredi public. This merchandise will always have buyers. Somehow the haredim swallowed the insult and became the most disciplined public in the country in adhering to the guidelines.
"But then came the closure of Elad and the haredi neighborhoods in Tiberias. The speed, the recklessness, the improvisation - reminded us all of the NSC's bullying behavior before the closure of Bnei Brak. They simply issue instructions without checking the data, without checking whether patients can be removed. Nothing. First of all, closure; then once again marking the haredi public as responsible for the outbreak of the virus and now we can move on."
He says all of this has caused the haredi public to slowly lose their confidence in the Health Ministry and in the NSC: "We emphasize again, guidelines must be kept, but when there is no confidence, the public behaves accordingly. People refuse to go and be tested because they know that by the very act of inserting the swab in their nose and throat they are closing their own city - and prefer to go into self-isolation until the upheaval and symptoms pass.
"This is also what happened between Purim and Passover when the haredi public in the U.S. lost confidence in hospital physicians and preferred to stay home and suffer quietly. Those who didn't require ventilation remained home. Many of those who came to hospitals because there was no choice, ascended to heaven very quickly, thus justifying the confidence crisis.
"Hearings in the Knesset Constitutional Committee this week revealed how the NSC and Health Ministry act as bullies in everything having to do with the haredi public, and at the same time the silk gloves they wear when it comes to mayors close to the Likud leadership and the crates of membership registrations in the primaries, or just powerful mayors such as Ron Huldai."