Can police help win Israel's COVID-19 battle?

• Published date: 23 September 2021
• Author: MAAYAN JAFFE-HOFFMAN
• Publication title: Jerusalem Post, The: Web Edition Articles (Israel)

The Funjoya is the largest student festival in Israel, held twice a year. It includes three days of pool parties at several hotels simultaneously, and in the evening, there are huge events on the Funjoya beach, including fireworks and music.

"If you look at what was happening there, the parties were Green Pass, so they were allowed," Tomer Lotan, director-general of the Public Security Ministry, told The Jerusalem Post.

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He headed the "Magen Israel" National Coronavirus Task Force in the previous waves.

Partygoers "do not have to wear masks in the pool. They do not have to wear masks when they are drinking a beer or when they are eating.

"So even if 500 police officers were there, what can we do?" he asked, "stand by the pool and catch them for not wearing a mask between the time they go out of the water and to the bar to grab a beer?"

He said, "It sounds crazy, but this is the reality today."

Lotan spoke with the Post about one of the critical elements of Israel's battle against COVID-19: enforcement.

It's part of the Bennett administration's three-pronged strategy against COVID-19, which also includes vaccines and testing.

In a country where the public tends to be noncompliant and complacent, ensuring the rules are followed is a daunting task, according to Lotan.

The ministry took over enforcement on July 21 – the first ministry to be given the task since the start of the pandemic more than 18 months ago.

"Enforcement has become a much greater and fundamental element of fighting the disease than before," Lotan said. "I find myself at the ministry much more involved and much more accountable to the [coronavirus] cabinet."

But at the same time, the environment is not ripe for enforcement, he explained.

"The public behavior is actually drawn from what is the basic atmosphere regarding the coronavirus, so if we have a situation where the population feels danger and feels like the coronavirus is here and the wave is big, there is more self-enforcement," he said. "When people feel safe and protected and don't feel that there is an urgency around the coronavirus, then enforcement becomes much more difficult."

From his perspective, the public does not understand the gravity of the situation in Israel, which is in the midst of one of the most powerful and dangerous waves of the virus. With hospitals already filled with sick...