Want people to follow coronavirus guidelines? Create trust

The haredim don’t trust the government and they haven’t for years. The same is true when it comes to Israeli-Arabs and the Arabs who live in east Jerusalem.

By YAAKOV KATZ
A Jewish ultra-Orthodox man looks onto a local billboard with instructions related to the coronavirus at a street in a Jewish Orthodox neighborhood in Jerusalem, March 27, 2020 (photo credit: REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun)
A Jewish ultra-Orthodox man looks onto a local billboard with instructions related to the coronavirus at a street in a Jewish Orthodox neighborhood in Jerusalem, March 27, 2020
(photo credit: REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun)
If the number of infected and dead starts to climb in the haredi sector, blood will be on the hands of the rabbis and community leaders who ignored the government restrictions and called on their followers to do so as well.
But they are not the only ones responsible. For a people to listen to their government, they have to trust and believe it, on a rational and visceral level. They have to believe that what they are being told to do is in their best interest… that the individuals issuing the orders are thinking first and foremost about the people and not about themselves.
That is why it is no surprise that the two sectors in Israeli society that are most reluctant to abide by the government's restrictions are the haredim and the Arabs. These are the two most disenfranchised segments of Israeli society, and they have been for years.
The fact that some haredim continue praying in synagogues when they are not allowed to, or attend funerals by the hundreds when such gatherings are banned, should not come as a surprise. The writing that this would happen has been on the wall for decades.
The haredim don’t trust the government and they haven’t for years. The same is true when it comes to Israeli Arabs and the Arabs who live in east Jerusalem. They have even less faith in the government.
People tend to think that a lack of confidence in government is just about how people vote or view politicians. It is much more. It impacts the way we interact with one another. When someone doesn’t have faith in elected officials or political institutions, why would they suddenly now listen to government-issued guidelines? It becomes an every-man-for-himself society.
Just look at the past year and the government's attitude toward the Arab sector. On the one hand, all polls show that Israeli-Arabs are striving – more than ever – to integrate into Israeli society.
On the other hand, the leaders of both major political parties – Benjamin Netanyahu and Benny Gantz – have done nothing to try and make that happen.
The same is true about the haredim. Israel has had a problem integrating the ultra-Orthodox into society for decades – when it comes to military service or workforce participation. For years, different governments have tried different initiatives to solve the IDF draft issue or to get more haredim to join the workforce but they have only seen marginal success. Many haredim feel discrimination from general society, as if they don’t belong.
This isn’t meant to clear the leaders of the Arab and haredi sectors of responsibility for not ensuring that their communities follow the regulations. There is no excuse, for example, for the fact that yeshivot were allowed to remain open when universities and schools were closed down two weeks ago.
But we also should not be surprised that there is difficulty getting Arabs and haredim to abide by the government-imposed restrictions and guidelines. A government needs to build trust, and for too long, too many have failed.
If the government really wants people to believe in it, it needs to create trust and that means working to solve the serious problems that exist in society. We can’t expect everything to suddenly work after it’s been broken for so long.