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I understand the feelings of confusion and uncertainty, the anxiety that many people are feeling. I understand and, first and foremost, want to apologize for that. On a personal level, I ask your forgiveness for my behavior here at Beit HaNasi during the lockdown during Pesach.
I apologized for it in the past, and I am doing it again today. My loneliness is no more painful than the loneliness that many of you – who were so careful to follow the word and the spirit of the instructions – experience. I also ask your forgiveness today at a national level.
When the coronavirus burst into our lives, we thought it would be a tough battle, but we hoped for a swift victory and so we accepted the restrictions of social distancing with understanding, despite the costs it entails.
You paid a high price, a real price for a long time – our synagogues were closed on Pesach, our mosques were closed during Ramadan, and until today I grieve when I think of the bereaved families who were unable to visit the graves of their loved ones on Yom Hazikaron.
We celebrated with our families under great restrictions, we mourned our dead in a way unworthy of them, we lived our lives in a painful compromise in the belief that the country and its institutions would get us out of this crisis quickly.
You, the citizens of Israel, deserve a safety net that the country gives you. Decision-makers, government ministries, policy implementers must work for you and only for you. To save lives, to reduce infection, to rescue the economy.
I understand the feeling that none of these were done satisfactorily. And now, today, my fellow Israelis, we are forced to pay the price again.
I think of those with mental health issues in hostels, of soldiers, of parents in old-age homes. The lockdown means that our ability to live together, to celebrate together, to mourn together, to pray together, to fulfil our most basic human needs together – all these are harmed.
I am sharing these feelings with you, and at the same time I would like us to raise our heads and believe.
Since the outbreak of the pandemic, I have gone to where the battle is being fought and met with those who care for you, my fellow Israelis, and are doing everything to win this battle, and I ask you – put your trust in them.
And from here, I want to say to the government of Israel – its leaders, ministers and advisors: the trust of the people is beyond value. We must do everything to restore personal, medical and economic confidence to our fellow citizens.
This is a second chance and we must take it because we will not, I fear, get a third one.
We must refrain from blaming other parts of the society as if one sector is ‘responsible’ for spreading the disease. Every group and community in our society plays a crucial role in our combined strength and in our ability to win this battle.
We will not prevail through finger pointing and toxic accusations. Only together.
When we are fighting corona, we are together – Jews and Arabs, secular, religious and ultra-Orthodox – in hospitals, schools and in charitable organizations. Together, we learn in times like this what partnership is, what mutual responsibility is, what Israeli Hope is.
