Beit Shemesh Mayor Aliza Bloch has reached out to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and suggested that Israel determine a national memorial day for Israel's coronavirus fatalities.
The over 100 Israelis who have succumbed to the virus thus far include a number of residents of Beit Shemesh.
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Bloch wrote to Netanyahu on Sunday that "We are all dealing with an invisible enemy, without any definite solution about how and when to attack it. This is much more than a healthcare crisis. The school system is in distress, the economy must be rehabilitated, and even the family circle has suffered a serious blow."
"We have passed 100 fallen. There is a reason I said 'fallen,' and not dead. In my opinion, we are in a war. The virus attacks without regard for whether it's a secular woman, a religious Zionist man, or an elderly man wearing a shtreimel," Bloch wrote.
The Beit Shemesh mayor added that the corona crisis was bring out the best in Israeli society, which was enlisting en masse to fight the epidemic.
However, Bloch takes issue with the fact that little is said of the Israelis who are dying from it.
"The personal stories of the fallen are drowning in a sea of news reports, and the ongoing attempts to defeat the virus. Every day, there is almost no mention of those we have lost," she argued.
"I am asking for a national memorial day for those who fell to the virus. A day on which we mark these times in an official ceremony, tell the stories of the fallen. The school system will focus on the common good and the power of social support systems. I think it is of great importance to declare a national memorial day, right now, even when the war against the virus is still ongoing," Bloch wrote.
