Israeli leaders clash with ultra-Orthodox blockades on covid-19 vaccines

“That’s how the unequal application looks,” said Benny Gantz, the defense minister and head of the Blue and White party. “Millions of families and children are locked up at home and follow the rules while thousands of haredim gather at the funeral, most even without masks,” he said, using the Hebrew word for ultra-Orthodox.

Funerals followed anti-blockade protests in Bnei Brak and other ultra-Orthodox cities the previous week, in which ultra-Orthodox men threw rocks at police, lit rubbish bins and demolished street signs and light canes.

Israeli health officials have also struggled to convince ultra-Orthodox people to take a Covid-19 vaccine. Although much of Israel has allied to be vaccinated, the ultra-Orthodox population has been slower to embark, some doubt the safety of the vaccine and others suggest that the country’s citizens they are used to test their effectiveness.

“This is not a vaccine. It’s an experiment, “said Izhar Mahpud, a 57-year-old resident of Bnei Brak, an ultra-Orthodox city east of Tel Aviv that has been one of the most affected by Covid-19 in the country.” I’m not ready to be a rat in a laboratory “.

Israel aims to vaccinate much of its population in March and get the economy back on track, allowing the small nation along the Mediterranean Sea to serve as a global showcase of how to fight the deadly virus. . But the ultra-Orthodox have undermined these lofty goals, mainly by blocking the blockades and avoiding vaccines.

Israeli ultra-Orthodox make up about 12% of the population, but account for nearly a third of the country’s coronavirus infections. Israel currently has 68,331 active cases of coronavirus with new infections hovering around 7,000 a day.

Officials are fighting to control the latest increase. A British variant of the virus accounts for about 70% of current coronavirus infections, even as almost a third of Israelis have received the first dose of vaccination. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu last month banned all international flights and lawmakers passed a bill on Sunday to double fines for blocking violations.

Public health officials say the ultra-Orthodox community is particularly vulnerable to the rapidly moving virus. Their large families often live in crowded apartments and traditionally shun electronic communication that helps get information about vaccines.

Data from the Israeli Ministry of Health show that ultra-Orthodox Israelis are vaccinating at a slower rate than other groups. Among those over the age of 60, to whom the campaign has been open the longest, 85% of all Israelis have been vaccinated, compared to 78% of ultra-Orthodox Israelis.

Ultra-Orthodox and Arab cities lag behind in global immunity to the virus due to lower vaccination rates, according to Eran Segal, a computer biologist at the Weizmann Institute of Science who presented his findings to the Israeli government on Sunday evening . “It will continue to slow the decline of the pandemic.”

Health officials say infections in ultra-Orthodox communities have dwindled in recent days as some leading rabbis have approved the vaccination. Efforts are also being made to combat misinformation and get residents to get the vaccine.

In the large ultra-Orthodox city of Bnei Brak, local officials have set up a war room. In the oval-shaped wooden paneled room on the top floor of the town hall, with portraits of important religious figures lining the walls, the ultra-Orthodox youths sit around a large circular table with large jugs of hand sanitizer and working phones. They look at the spreadsheets with information about everyone who has or has not been vaccinated.

Officials had called about 10,000 people who had not been vaccinated and talked to about 7,000. About 5,000 said they wanted a vaccine but had not yet gotten one. About 1,500 or so did not want to be vaccinated. City officials are working to overcome the obstacles posed in the calls.

For those who do not travel to a vaccination center, they make one. If potential vaccine recipients are unable to contact their health insurance providers, they will also help. And if someone you reach doesn’t want to get the vaccine, point out why.

Grandfather Blumenthal, who heads the health ministry’s outreach to ultra-Orthodox, said he and his staff are fighting lists of Israeli ultra-Orthodox cities to find rabbis who are against vaccination and are looking for answers. In one case, an ultra-Orthodox community in Jerusalem had low vaccine rates that many attributed to their rabbi’s alleged anti-vaccine stance. But when health workers interviewed the rabbi, they knew it was actually pro-vaccine; someone had spread a rumor attributing to him that the vaccine was dangerous.

Yehuda Shaish, 63, who runs four ultra-Orthodox schools in Bnei Brak and nearby towns, said he waited until the rabbis blessed the vaccines. “After the rabbis authorized it, I went happy,” he said.

Even with the blessings of the rabbis, many ultra-Orthodox remain skeptical about vaccines. Yedidya Hasson, 28, who runs a network of WhatsApp groups with 30,000 people in which some members have questioned the wisdom of vaccines and coronavirus restrictions, says she will not take the vaccine at least for now because she fears possible health risks.

“When it comes to vaccines,” he said, “I think the media in Israel is hiding the truth.”

Some ultra-Orthodox leaders say that while community distrust may help explain vaccine resistance and recent displays of civil disobedience, such distrust does not justify violating rules that endanger public health. “You expect religious men to be more moral,” said Rabbi Dov Halbertal, a prominent lawyer and ultra-Orthodox commentator. “But when it comes to the biggest test to save lives, we’re failing.”

Write to Felicia Schwartz to [email protected]