Israel health minister under fire over COVID-19 crisis

JERUSALEM: To some, Israeli Health Minister Yaakov Litzman is guilty of a “catastrophic failure” of leadership for not urgently conveying the coronavirus threat to the ultra-Orthodox Jewish community that elected him. Milder critics have described Litzman as a “tragic” leader, whose limited authority compared to ultra-Orthodox rabbis’ hindered his ability to persuade constituents to embrace science-based protections against the outbreak.

The coronavirus crisis presented the 71-year-old Litzman, himself ultra-Orthodox, with daunting challenges — even before he and his wife tested positive for the virus. But experts say his struggle to take charge of policy is symptomatic of broader tensions between the ultra-Orthodox, known as haredim in Israel, and other Israelis. Some have speculated that the pandemic may ultimately force haredim to accept that their desire to remain isolated from the rest of Israel must change. Litzman’s role in the crisis speaks to the “clash of loyalties” embedded among haredim, Rabbi Yehoshua Pfeffer, an ultra-Orthodox expert, told AFP. Despite sitting in parliament as head of the United Torah Judaism alliance and serving in cabinet, Litzman’s “primary loyalty” is to the rabbinical leaders of his Gur Hassidic sect, Pfeffer said. “It is actually incredible that you have a health minister whose underlying ideology, whose frame of reference, is the ‘us versus them’ mindset” that haredim feel towards less religious Israelis, Pfeffer said. “This coronavirus crisis really accentuates... that this tension is going to require a resolution,” he added.

- ‘Save a life’ –

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government is generally viewed as having reacted swiftly to the crisis, imposing travel bans and movement restrictions before many other countries. But ultra-Orthodox neighbourhoods initially resisted social-distancing measures, especially regarding the closure of synagogues and religious schools, or yeshivot. Israel has more than 9,000 confirmed cases of COVID-19 but more than a third of those are among haredim, a group that accounts for only 12 percent of the country’s population. That disproportionately high infection rate has forced the imposition of exceptional containment measures in haredi communities, including a beefed up military presence in the city of Bnei Brak. Former Knesset member Dov Lipman, also a rabbi, stressed that Litzman did not prevent more secular Israelis from adopting medically proven protections.