OK Litzman. Dayenu!
As if it was not enough that Health Minister Yaakov Litzman allegedly obstructed justice by influencing the psychiatric reports offered to the courts considering the extradition of Malka Leifer. The former school principle is wanted in Australia on 74 counts of child abuse.
As if it was not enough that Health Minister Yaakov Litzman permitted yeshivas to remain open in spite of the danger of infection from the Coronavirus while secular schools across the country closed down.
As if it was not enough that Health Minister Yaakov Litzman did not attend critical meetings about setting guidelines for response to the virus and did not follow his own regulations for social distancing, infecting himself and his wife, and instructing the delay by one week of the enforcement of stricter rules in the Ultra-Orthodox neighbourhoods — and we all saw what happened there.
Now we hear that he allowed yesterday morning’s opening of the three Ikea stores and that co-owner of Ikea in Israel is a member of his Gur Hasidic community.
That is just too much to bear.
The entire country is suffering enormous economic losses, with shops and services shut down so long that it is doubtful whether or not many of them will be able to recuperate from this.
Multimillionaire Shalom Fisher will easily survive the loss of business regardless of how long Ikea would be closed. But how many middle class entrepreneurs will go so deeply into debt that they consider suicide? How many restaurant owners will be unable to recoup their losses? How many open-air market shop owners? How many of the over one million unemployed will recover from the anxiety and depression unemployment often causes? The divorces? The losses of homes over inability to repay mortgages?
I am also upset with all those who went to Ikea and lined up to go inside. They should have gone to Ikea with placards to demonstrate and protest this cynical spitting in our faces by the likes of Litzman and Fisher. And if there is civil uprising on the part of shop owners around the country, it will be Litzman’s fault.
My anger will likely not subside until we see Litzman fired from his ministerial position, fired from the Knesset. What can we do to bring that about?
Feature Image Credit: REUVEN FRIZI / CC BY-SA (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)
