Israelis blame ultra-Orthodox for coronavirus pandemic

Nothing prepared Yakir Lance — an ultra-Orthodox fellow who lives in the heart of Tel Aviv — for his encounter with a secular cab driver at the end of January.

Lance ordered a cab through a taxi app, as he usually does, and waited outside his home. When a taxi drove past him without stopping, Lance assumed that it was some kind of mistake. Then he called the driver, who told him directly, “You are an ultra-Orthodox disease spreader; I can’t take you,” and sped away.

This event took place shortly after the Jan. 24 disturbances that erupted in Bnei Brak, Israel’s largest ultra-Orthodox city; in the course of the riots a bus was set on fire and the driver was rescued at the last minute. The violent events erupted against the background of confrontations between policemen and ultra-Orthodox young people, as authorities tried to enforce the third lockdown in ultra-Orthodox cities. It was the low point of a violent week in the centers of ultra-Orthodox cities and localities, and the media was filled with reports on the sparring between police and the ultra-Orthodox.

The political responses were not long in coming. The chairman of the Yisrael Beitenu party, Avigdor Liberman, responded with sarcasm. “Who said the ultra-Orthodox don’t know how to fight?” asked Liberman, who has long sought end exemptions that allow the ultra-Orthodox to avoid performing the country's mandatory military service.