Corona - Israel

I am including some of my articles and observations about Israel’s response to the Corona virus, since it was a pioneer amongst the democratic governments in imposing restrictions on its citizens. Its attempts to flatten the curve of illness seemed extreme initially, for example when it closed its skies to incoming visitors at the start of March, but other countries soon found themselves following suit.

This is a long version of an article I wrote for The Australian newspaper on 16 March 2020.

AT WAR WITH CORONA - 16 march 2020

By Irris Makler in Jerusalem

From the start of the Corona crisis, Israel has been on a war footing. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has held nightly press conferences, live into the evening news bulletins, to announce the latest restrictions. Each time, the measures came as a shock and elicited criticism. Yet within days, other countries followed suit.

“People are adopting our methods, including most recently the New Zealand government,” Netanyahu said on Saturday, announcing the closure of ‘non-essential’ workplaces, such as restaurants, cafes, theatres and gyms. Kindergartens were also shut down, joining schools and universities which were shut down last week.

He also announed that no more than 10 people can gather in public, including in a workplace.

Tens of thousands of Israelis are in quarantine at home. Israel was amongst the first countries to impose self-quarantine on all people flying into the country, including foreigners. If people can’t prove they have somewhere (other than a hotel) to stay for 14 days, they can’t enter, in effect closing Israeli airspace to incoming flights.

Fay Ginzburg, an Australian who lives in Israel, didn’t think she would make it back. Her return flight from Melbourne was cancelled 3 times. Finally, El Al provided a route through Africa. “In the arrivals hall at Tel Aviv, in the baggage area and passport control, ours was the only plane,” Fay wrote, after hurrying home to her 14-day isolation.

From the start, Israel imposed rigorous contact tracing. Now it will be expanded. Netanyahu announced Saturday that he planned to track patients’ mobile phones in order to trace their contacts. “I have resisted this, because of the privacy implications, but now this is the only way to defeat this virus,” he said.

Up to this point, the movements of an infected person were mapped using interviews and GPS locations and other information from their phones, with their co-operation. Anyone who came into contact with them was required to go into quarantine. That included people sitting in the same café or attending the same soccer game. After a high school student who became infected with the virus went to a soccer match, the Ministry of Health directive was reported on Israeli radio: “People who entered Blumfield Stadium via Gate 8 on Thursday are required to go into isolation.’

The student picked up the virus at a toy store, the Red Pirate, whose manager had become infected on a trip to Italy. Three pregnant women who were shopping at the Red Pirate also had to go into isolation. One of them gave birth in isolation and her baby was taken to have a medical procedure, while she remained by herself to complete her quarantine.

“As a society we are able to very quickly go into emergency mode,” said Israeli author and analyst, Yossi Klein Halevi. “Unfortunately, we have long practice in responding to emergencies.  And as damaged as our political system may be, Israeli society is very resilient, social bonds are strong and people pull together.”

One of the most practical step Israeli medical authorities have taken is to implement home testing. There’s a hotline for people to call if they have symptoms. The Health Department then sends a paramedic in protective gear to their home to take a swab.  Within 48 hours – or less, if the test comes back positive - they have the results, without infecting anyone else.

 “Not testing alone. Not contact tracing alone. Not quarantine alone. Not social distancing alone. Do it all… do not just let this fire burn,” advised Director of the World Health Organisation Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. Israel is doing all that, but it is only slowing the spread of the virus, it won’t halt it. Still, it’s worth remembering that the first Corona virus cases appeared in Israel and Italy at around the same time in February. The people in both countries are in lockdown, but Israel imposed its measures ahead of the curve. Italy now has more than 17,500 people infected and more than 1,400 dead and a health service under stress. Israel has around 190 infections and, so far, no deaths.

FOLLOW UP

I wrote this on Saturday 14 March 2020 and it ran on Monday 16 March 2020. It’s so sad to look back 11 days later, when the number of Israelis infected is doubling every 3 days. This evening, on 25 March 2020, it now has 2,370 infected and 5 dead.

Italy’s numbers are devastating. Despite punitve lockdown measures, there has been a huge leap, and Italy has outsripped China, where the virus began, to reach number one in this horrible league table. As of tonight, March 25th, has more than 74,000 infected and more than 7,500 dead. Heartbreaking.

SURVEILLANCE - 21 march 2020

This is a radio news piece I did for Canadian broadcaster CBC.

There has been criticism of the surveillance methods that Israel has begun employing for contract tracing and to ensure that people don’t breach their quarantine conditions. Its domestic spy service tracks corona sufferers via their phones, using technology developed for anti-terror activities.

Civil society groups have mounted a legal challege because the controversial step was not authorised by parliament.

In the week starting 16 March 2020, Israel’s domestic spy service, the Shin Bet, began tracking the cell phones of people diagnosed with Covid 19. The Shin Bet locates anyone in their vicinity going back 14 days. contacts them via text message and tells them to go into a two week quarantine.

It’s also tracking the phones of people self-isolating at home to make sure they stay there.

Prime minister Netanyahu admits these steps are controversial in a democracy, and says he hesitated before introducing them. However, there has been no parliamentary oversight. The measures bypassed parliament and were authorised by cabinet in the early hours of Tuesday morning.

In the same week, in an unprecedented step, the Speaker of israel's parliament shut it down, which meant no committees could be set up to oversee the programme.

One of the organisations which challenged the surveillance in israel’s high court is ACRI, the Association for Civil Rights in Israel. Gilad Galmor is a lawyer there. “People are now awakening and understanding the problem of giving too much government when it comes to privacy.”

Plus we’re learning that the technology doesn’t always work. Uriah is one of the israelis contacted by the Shin Bet and told to self-isolate. But she was already in isolation. When she challenged the findings - not an easy process in itself - officials agreed there’d been an error.

Later in the week, israel’s High Court temporarily stopped police from using phone data to enforce quarantines. It said it would halt the entire programme by Tuesday next week (1 April 2020) if there’s no parliamentary oversight by that date.

HOW TIGHT CAN YOU WEAR THAT GIRDLE?

There’s been a debate inside Israel’s cabinet over how tight restrictions should be. Religious Jews have found it very difficult to see shuttered synagogues and mikve’s - the Jewish ritual baths. initially you were allowed out to walk a dog.

It’s been reported that Israel’s Ultra-Orthodox Health Minister Yaakov Litzman put his opposition this way - “Well, if you can walk your dog, you can go to the mikve.” This shows either no understanding of how dangerous it would be to bathe in water that isn’t changed between customers, or a cunning way to get dog walking removed from the list of permitted behaviours. As of today, 26 March, you can only go 100 metres from your home with a dog, or for excercise.