{"id":5065,"date":"2020-03-25T12:35:04","date_gmt":"2020-03-24T23:35:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/israelinstitute.nz\/?p=5065"},"modified":"2020-07-18T00:55:00","modified_gmt":"2020-07-17T12:55:00","slug":"the-pandemic-has-brought-out-the-best-and-the-worst-of-some-of-us","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/israelinstitute.nz\/2020\/03\/the-pandemic-has-brought-out-the-best-and-the-worst-of-some-of-us\/","title":{"rendered":"The pandemic has brought out the best and the worst of some of us"},"content":{"rendered":"

There have been some disgusting responses to the COVID-19 pandemic. It started with some groups and people\u00a0blaming Israel\/Jews for the virus<\/a>\u00a0(just as Jews were\u00a0blamed and attacked for the Black Death<\/a>) and\u00a0rejoicing at the first Israeli to succumb to the virus<\/a>. No doubt,\u00a0Asians have also felt the brunt of ignorant racism<\/a>\u00a0and none of it is OK.<\/p>\n

However, there is far more positive news to come from the pandemic – whether that be\u00a0local community support groups<\/a>,\u00a0open-source mask designs<\/a>, or\u00a0neighbours singing from their apartments<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In Israel, almost everyone is self-isolating at home on government advice and we have seen\u00a0similar rejoicing from flats<\/a>\u00a0as well as\u00a0applause for healthcare workers erupting from balconies<\/a>. There are also some lovely stories of\u00a0online solidarity between Israelis and the Arab world<\/a>.<\/p>\n

At a national level,\u00a0Israel and the Palestinian Authority have\u00a0stepped up coordination over the past few weeks<\/a>. This led President Rivlin to\u00a0tweet<\/a>\u00a0\u201c…Our ability to work together in times of crisis is also a testament to our ability to work together in the future for the good of us all.\u201d<\/p>\n

Perhaps this global crisis will help pave a path toward even more cooperation and future peace. One can only hope.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, even with Israel working with the PA and\u00a0coordinating large amounts of essential products<\/a>\u00a0for delivery to Gaza in addition to the standard\u00a02,547 truckloads of goods last week<\/a>; the\u00a0official PA newspaper compared Israel to coronavirus<\/a>\u00a0and there are reports that PA officials are\u00a0hiding their collaborative work<\/a>\u00a0with Israel from the people they are meant to serve.<\/p>\n

And, even though\u00a0Egypt has done nothing to help Gaza<\/a>, and Hamas\u00a0warned Gazans not to travel abroad<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0closed the border with Egypt to prevent virus spread<\/a>; there are still anti-Israel activists using the global crisis to push their agenda; calling for a\u00a0complete opening of the border between Israel and Gaza<\/a>.<\/p>\n

I sincerely hope that the cooperation between Israeli and Palestinian leaders continues, strengthens, and that the citizens on both sides can more easily see through the PA news propaganda and other antisemitism.<\/p>\n

If there\u2019s one thing that this virus proves; our borders may protect us from threats of man but are little help against mother nature.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There have been some disgusting responses to the COVID-19 pandemic. It started with some groups and people\u00a0blaming Israel\/Jews for the virus\u00a0(just as Jews were\u00a0blamed and attacked for the Black Death) and\u00a0rejoicing at the first Israeli to succumb to the virus. No doubt,\u00a0Asians have also felt the brunt of ignorant racism\u00a0and none of it is OK. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":5068,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[689],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/israelinstitute.nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5065"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/israelinstitute.nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/israelinstitute.nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/israelinstitute.nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/israelinstitute.nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5065"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/israelinstitute.nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5065\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5067,"href":"https:\/\/israelinstitute.nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5065\/revisions\/5067"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/israelinstitute.nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5068"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/israelinstitute.nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5065"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/israelinstitute.nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5065"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/israelinstitute.nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5065"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}