This week, they brought out the big guns: The prime minister, the finance minister, top officials in the Health Ministry, and maybe even the head of the Shin Bet security agency. They all appealed to Israelis, using both carrots and sticks, to take in the seriousness of the situation and realize that the most important thing to do was to stay home.
At the same time, one of the most serious, as well as disturbing, orders called on us not to visit our grandparents. Why? Because they are in a high-risk group that could, heaven forbid, be the first to lose their lives because of this cursed virus.
Follow Israel Hayom on Facebook and Twitter
Defense Minister Naftali Bennett and the cabinet made the call, the media echoed it, and it seemed as though the message was received.
To my surprise, the government is not working as zealously to make sure that those same grandparents don't go hungry because of the situation into which they've been forced.
This week, a woman in her seventies, like many others in the Israeli workforce, was notified that she was being furloughed without pay. She was sent to file a claim with the National Insurance Institute. To her children's surprise, she wasn't able to register on the NII's website, and was unable to get them on the phone.
Generally, the NII is a bureaucratic monolith that most of us love to hate, but this time, the backlog was understandable. Tens of thousands of people needed its services at the same time and the NII was unprepared.
At the time this column went to press, hundreds of thousands of citizens were newly unemployed, and some 40,000 unemployment benefits claims had been filed in a day.
When MK Merav Cohen stepped in to help those seeking assistance, it turned out that the problem was with the legislature and the government. When informed that a woman in her seventies hadn't been able to file a claim, their answer was that citizens of retirement age aren't eligible. In other words, the elderly are good enough to work, but not to receive unemployment benefits in a national crisis.
Data shows that life expectancy in Israel continues to rise, and therefore the number of elderly is increasing. The past 10 years have seen debate about raising the retirement age but nothing much has changed.
Despite the limitations and the lack of support from the state, pensioners earn salaries (often insignificant) and remain an active part of the workforce.
But when a crisis arrives, they are forgotten once again. To the prime minister, the finance minister, the defense minister, and the head of the National Security Council: We are counting on you. We will not let you to abandon our elderly loved ones. Make an adjustment to the national emergency protocol. Allow our grandparents who are on unpaid leave to receive what they deserve, and most importantly, allow them a decent living.
