Arab councils in Israel on strike over pandemic, economic crisis
Heads of Israeli-Arab local councils say they have no choice but to strike because no one in the government is listening to them.
This was not how Israel’s 1.9 million Arab citizens had hoped to spend Ramadan. Local governments in Israel’s Arab towns and villages have been on strike since May 5, closing down schools, suspending welfare and other municipal services as well as garbage collection, policing and the local coronavirus centers tasked with curtailing the spread of the disease.
The closure of the coronavirus command centers is particularly dangerous in a number of Arab communities hard hit by the pandemic, among them the Negev Bedouin town of Hura, the Wadi Ara town of Umm al-Fahm and Dir al-Assad in the Galilee. Hundreds have tested positive for the virus in these communities, with some in serious condition. Suspending the services of these local centers has halted essential activities, such as evacuating infected residents from their homes to special isolation facilities, disinfecting public buildings, including schools, and reporting to the Health Ministry and other national agencies on the effects of the disease.
