The stoplight plan to battle Israel's coronavirus epidemic – which color-codes cities, towns, and local authorities based on their numbers of cases, allowing the government to place them under restrictions accordingly – has helped the nation fight the virus, but it has also led to a kind of competition among local authorities. A downgrade to orange – the second-worst ranking – is celebrated as a victory.
But with the government busy fighting other wars on other fronts, mayors and local authority leaders are mostly left to themselves. Israel Hayom visited with the local leadership of four different cities to learn about the tensions between local government and the national government.
Follow Israel Hayom on Facebook and Twitter
Kafr Qasim
Adel Badir, mayor of the Arab city Kafr Qasim, says, "In the first wave, the entire Arab sector was fine. The second wave came during wedding season, and that made things difficult for us. 80% [of Israeli Arabs] who got the virus got it at weddings.
"What's more, the first wave, people were really frightened of COVID but [then] got the impression that it's not so bad and starting dismissing it. They didn't wear masks. When we saw that ultimately, the responsibility lay with local leaders, I reached out to government ministries and asked for the necessary authority."
Badir discusses a plan he has prepared in conjunction with the IDF Home Front Command, the Health Ministry, and teams assigned by national coronavirus coordinator Professor Ronni Gamzu to bring his city from red to green. The first step was to inform members of his city council that they would not be attending any more weddings, no matter who invited them.
Q: Were they angry?
"On one hand, the residents were shocked. On the other hand, religious leaders and the public very soon joined the call [not to attend weddings]. We were bright red, number one in Israel for COVID numbers. But the moment we cut back on weddings, the number of new cases started to drop."
"Then," the mayor says, "We came up with the plan."
The city's treasurer, the advisor to the local authority leader, and a local technician make up the triumvirate that came up with an idea: the mayor is presented with the names and IDF numbers of all his residents in electronic form. By pressing a button, he can call up all the relevant information about each one of them – have they recently contracted COVID; where they got it; and so on.
"The plan gives us room to maneuver. We are able to map things out and know where to take action."
Q: The residents weren't upset? That's private information.
"What on earth? It's for the sake of public health! The Health Ministry doesn't get to everyone. We took a team of social workers trained by the Home Front Command, who do contact tracing and then within two hours call everyone who was infected at a given place and take their details. The patients get a phone call from the person in charge of security and from the head of the welfare department. They calm them down. The second call the patient gets is from the contact tracing team."
"All the information is put into the computer and there's a third call, in which a local authority representative reaches out to see if they need medical assistance, because it's better to bring them medicine at home than have them go to a clinic and infect others. A fourth phone call makes sure they have food at home. If not, the city makes sure to deliver a food parcel worth 600-1,200 shekels ($177-$354).
Q: Who allocated the money for the plan?
"The Defense Ministry. We agreed that if we succeed, the pilot will be expanded to all Arab local authorities."
Q: It wasn't strange cooperating with the Defense Ministry? Most of your residents are Israeli Arabs who identify with the Palestinian narrative.
"We Israelis Arabs are all Palestinian. We care about the peace process between Israel and a future Palestinian state. Certainly. But we live here and work with the government ministries in full cooperation. Every day, we hold a situation assessment with the police and the Public Security Ministry. I'm happy that in a war for survival, like this one against COVID, they chose us for the pilot."
Soon, Israel's second lockdown will end. When Kafr Qasim put its plan in place, the city had 70 new positives a day. Last week, that number dropped to zero to three. The cost? 108 million shekels ($32 million) for six months. That money is used up, and the National Committee for Heads of Arab Local Authorities has requested another disbursement.
When asked if weddings will now be held, Badir says, "I am recommending that until December, no weddings be held at all, but if the law allows it, I can't enforce that. My role as a city leader is to take care that if there are weddings, they are held according to the rules."
Haifa
In the North, Haifa Mayor Dr. Einat Kalisch-Rotem is juggling a complex reality. Haifa has no computerized data or a unified population. This week, the city was upgraded to green, but there is a lot of anger.
"There's a sense of helplessness," Kalisch-Rotem says. "For example, there are entire families where everyone has COVID and we need to get them to a hotel facility and treat them. If they are treated within a day, they won't infect anyone, but after five days, it could be too late."
Kalisch-Rotem has multiple fronts in her mixed city, as well as different neighborhoods with different color codes.
"All it takes is for one resident of a red neighborhood to decide to go to a park in a green neighborhood, and it has an immediate effect. In contrast to what the government decided, we decided to shut down public parks and playgrounds, which outraged the residents, but there was nothing we could do. I really hope the government decides on differential closures. Unfortunately I didn't have a power to instate a closure of that kind in the city, because it's the right solution."
Hundreds of messages reach the mayor by telephone and Facebook each day. Finding it difficult to distinguish between the responsibilities of the government and the responsibilities of the city, Haifa residents want to share and complain. Kalisch-Rotem has to explain why they may not go to the beach or why small businesses are closed, even though she didn't make those decisions.
Meanwhile, Haifa has volunteers who patrol the streets and encourage residents to follow public health regulations. This initiative is credited with helping the city bring down its number of cases.
Subscribe to Israel Hayom's daily newsletter and never miss our top stories!
Yeroham
233 kilometers (145 miles) to the south, Tal Ohana, head of the Yeroham Regional Council – home to 270,000 people – welcomes the chance that COVID gave local government to shine.
Even in the first wave, Ohana found herself on her own. She could be seen on television, doing her own contact tracing.
The Yeroham Local Council has gotten the ball rolling on plenty of initiatives designed to plug the holes the government leaves open: handing out computers; technical support for children having trouble with online school and parents who are having difficulty with children; a plan to help teachers with distance learning; and activities for the elderly. In addition, the local council is offering vocational training for young people, so they can use their free time to their advantage.
Q: Who is funding all this?
"We got help from the Defense Ministry – 250,000 shekels ($74,000). We raised a lot of money. We used other resources. Let's just say, the government is doing everything it can. I have some criticism and we are holding talks. The electronic surveillance [of COVID patients] isn't working like it's supposed to and there is no solution for public prayer.
"I'm mostly bothered by the economic ramifications. The government should step up its investment in the periphery, mostly through technology growth engines. We were the first to find ourselves in a crisis in terms of high unemployment, and will probably be the last to come out of it. I wrote about that to the director general of the Finance Ministry [Keren Turner] the very day she resigned."
Yeroham, which had put COVID behind it, became red again over the High Holidays when yeshiva students returned home and spread the virus to their families.
"Our population is 11% Haredi. Our efforts are focused there and there are no cases in the rest of the community. Anyone who judges the Haredim should take a deep breath. If a kid comes home from yeshiva to a family of 12 living in a 700-square-foot apartment, its unavoidable. We offered quarantine, they said it was Sukkot and they wouldn't split up. I have a lot of appreciation for their lifestyle when they don't gather and don't break the rules. It's been 10 days, everyone recovered. Within a few days, we'll be green again.
Q: What do you think will happen next?
"I'm in favor of differential policies."
Beit Shemesh
Beit Shemesh, which started off red, now has neighborhoods color-coded orange or even yellow, and its COVID numbers are trending downward. Beit Shemesh Mayor Dr. Aliza Bloch does not entertain questions about clashes between the government and local authorities.
"No one benefits from accusations. We're fighting a war," she says.
"In most of Israel's wars, it was easy to enlist against the enemy, but this time, it's a little virus, and more difficult. I'm not judging the handling of the event. Everyone thinks that if they were in charge, they'd be successful.
"As a local leader, I have to look the residents in the eye and say that I see the whole picture. The only way to win is to win the trust of the public. If there is no faith in the larger vision that we're all taking part in bringing to reality, there is no point to a lockdown, which can't be enforced, anyway. The Israeli public threw themselves into missions and put on gas masks and sat in bomb shelters when they were convinced it was what had to be done," Bloch says.
"Every morning I remind myself that there is life the day after this [is over]. We have a situation room that operates 24 hours a day, operated by Haredim and secular residents along with nonprofit groups, so that a family where everyone has COVID won't have to go out at all. We bring them food, baby formula, games. Everything. When you call to get help a Haredi volunteer might show up to a secular family with food, or a secular volunteer might bring medicine to a Haredi family. It's lovely."
Q: Have you given up on COVID 'hotels'?
"Economically, it's better for the government to handle them. If I had more money, I'd do it better."
Q: What would you do?
"Bolster service to families. I'd get them better food, real treats. I wouldn't close businesses so as not to add more families to the cycle of poverty. I'd do everything to keep things open, under conditions of social distancing and enforcement. Instead of unemployment benefits, I would incentivize employers to hire more people right now."
"We're creating pressure cookers. I'm disturbed that there is a young generation who knows they can sit at home for a year and get money without having to work. Does the government want to raise a generation that asks when the benefits are paid? We need to leave the benefits to those who really can't get along without them. Everyone else has to go back to work. Give them jobs to do – we're already paying them. Let them make phone calls to 20 different elderly people each day. There's plenty to be done."
Q: Have you asked the government for help?
"I ask all the time. Sometimes we get a little, from the Treasury, from the Defense Ministry, from the Housing Ministry. It's not enough. It's hard to run a city when there's no budget. Even things we would normally get we still haven't received."
Beit Shemesh is innovative when it comes to education during COVID.
"We located all the children and took them to parks in small groups to learn. Every teacher was responsible for one group. We're bringing people from youth movements and kids from national service on board. The community is involved. Our motto is, 'teach responsibility.'"
On Oct. 27, a citywide clean-up day is scheduled. Every family will go out to clean up the area around their building, Bloch adds.
"The most important part of this whole COVID thing is that university students from Beit Shemesh who are studying at home rather than going to the Technion, Beersheba, or Tel Aviv, remember that this is the best place in the world. I'm waiting for them to settle down here, as a result of COVID, and buy homes," Bloch says.
