Opinion: Many of this year’s coronavirus victims perished due to political pettiness and power games, all while sparking little, if any, public interest; it is our obligation to remember them and encourage their families to move forward
In the span of one year, no less than 5,100 Israelis have perished due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Between December 2020 and December 2021, the number of people who died due to COVID-related complications in the country is similar to the tally of people killed on Israel’s roads in the last 15 years. It is also more than double the number of people who have died in various terrorist attacks since 1967.
One needs to dive into the deepest channels of the Health Ministry’s website to extract even the tiniest bit of information about these coronavirus victims.
Where were they from? Which community did they belong to? How long did they carry the pathogen before dying? Who accompanied them in their final hours? All of these remain open questions without even the prospect of an answer in sight.
Worse than the chronic lack of information, is the chronic lack of interest.
Some 5,100 dead in a year means that on average over the past year we’ve had over a hundred dead a week. But of course there are deviations. For instance, in January of last year we saw 350 COVID deaths in one week, or 250 deaths we saw in the first week of September.
All around the world, heads of state saw it fitting to bow their heads in public and apologize to the families of those who were lost during the pandemic. In Israel, however, the publication of these numbers by health officials was met with deafening silence from the public and the politicians.
In other parts of the world, many participated in public ceremonies honoring the dead, while some even gave heart wrenching eulogies.
National days of remembrance were declared, and flags were lowered to half mast, all in honor of the victims of this ongoing pandemic who were let down by their respective governments.
Not in Israel though. It seems the famous social solidarity of the people of Israel did not shatter the glass wall that is the pandemic.
And since none of the dead were celebrities or public figures, their deaths went by unnoticed by those who shape public opinion, such as TV figures, producers and others.
Overall, how many of this year’s 5,100 coronavirus victims died due to questionable government decisions, such as the premature easing of the health restrictions, which themselves were the result of petty inter-ministerial arguments and shameful political games?
How many perished due to the lax enforcement of the vaccination mandate, and the unabated spread of continuous lies regarding the inoculation?
Imagine that a hundred Israelis were murdered by terrorists each week for one year. The entire country would have lamented their loss. The politicians would have fought about who gets to console the families first. The military would have enforced unprecedented measures, meant to eradicate the phenomenon with extreme prejudice.
This year’s 5,100 coronavirus victims fell as if they were soldiers of an uncaring state. They died unseen and sequestered in closed virus wards. May they rest in peace.
As reported by Ynetnews