While the harsh measures against the Corona have just begun, the Palestinian Authority is required to show certificates and provide good excuses in the Palestinian Authority • Despite the damage to tourism, the majority are optimistic - and also give advice to Israel: "If you continue to go to sea, the disease will stay longer"

• Disinfection teams in Ramallah, this month. "Everything will be back to normal, but where will the money come from?"

  Photo:

  Reuters

At the entrance to Bethlehem, Palestinian policemen stand and check the certificates of applicants. Those who want to go out should also present a certificate, and most importantly explain why. The pioneering contagion in Corona closes two weeks of closure when we're just getting started, and in the face of the Israeli murmur, hopefully the Palestinian premise I met in the virtual space will prove to be contagious.

"My neighbor got on it first," recalls Omar Aboganya, a resident of Doha neighborhood on the seam between Beit Jala and al-Khader on the outskirts of Bethlehem, "he was a taxi driver, driving the tourists from Greece who brought the virus here. By the way, his situation is improving. "

Reminder: 14 Angel Hotel employees were infected by a group of tourists who came from Greece to relax in the tourism frenzy, putting the PA under pressure. A beautiful hermetic closure was imposed on the district, which numbered about 225,000 people.

Omar (49) is a construction contractor, working for Jews and Arabs in the area. For two weeks now, he and his family have been living off what was left. No one goes to work or school, most of the day sitting in the living room. The market is open, and occasionally come out to smoke as well.

Doesn't the food end in stores?

"Sending supplies. Here, now I returned, I saw a truck from Nablus and a truck from Abu Mazen, and there are also many people who help each other. Even if it ends, no one will stay hungry. People take the closure and danger seriously, clean and look at each other, to see that no one One is not sick and no one is missing. "

And who will give you back the money you lose?

"Who should give me back?"

I don't know, PA.

Omar laughs. "The main thing is that we will be healthy. The illness will end, the livelihood will return. Everything from God."

Don't take a risk

Indeed, the absolute closure taken by the PA when we still thought it was not going to happen, suggests that. Medical teams from the PA arrived at Tel Hashomer Hospital at the beginning of the crisis. 400 corona test kits were given to the central clinic in Ramallah, and 500 protective kits. To be sure, each check carried out by the Authority was first re-examined at Tel Hashomer to verify the results, which incidentally overlapped in all cases.

PA supply crates

Military officials praise the cooperation and alertness, and provide an example of a recent Monday in which Palestinian workers from Hebron entered the factory in Ashkelon. Concerns arose that the factory owner was carrying, and Palestinian health officials asked the Civil Administration, near Beersheba, at the Meitar border crossing, a mobile waiting of the Red Crescent to take the workers to isolation. Palestinian social networks immediately state that "the occupation is giving away 14 Palestinian civilians at Meitar Checkpoint south of Ta'ahariya, after being in contact with the Corona virus in Israel." But the area, the Civil Administration feels, knows that the Corona does not discriminate between races.

As in Israel, there is also considerable tension between the self-employed and the employees. Riyadh (38) is a "civil servant", an officer in the Palestinian security services, working in Muqata in Ramallah. Wherever Abu Mazen is - you will find Riyadh. Interesting work, good conditions, high status in the village and many trips abroad.

Riyadh lives in the Husan area, a town outside the Bethlehem governorate, but to get to work in Ramallah he had to cross Bethlehem twice a day. When the closure of the city was imposed, he received a clear message from the boss's office: Do not arrive until further notice. Don't take risks, even though he just goes there with the vehicle. "I'm glad, what's wrong with me? The hard work, I leave at 6am and return at 10pm. Look at me now, working the land, spending time with the kids."

But you didn't really go into Bethlehem, you were just told not to come to work.

"True, they are careful. Well done to them."

You are missing out on a historical period in your work.

"Abu Mazen is a great person, which is a real shame when he is not there. But I keep up with the friends."

And what about the money?

"I am paid everything as if I was working, I lost nothing. I can tell you that the PA is coming towards the citizens. There are no bank fees and no interest rates, loans and credit. I feel we have bypassed you, the Israelis, this time. Happening in Europe and realizing that the right thing to do is close, you are just getting started now and it's late. Time for me so I watch TV, and what I see? In Tel Aviv go to the sea and Jerusalem go to school. The disease will stay with you longer. "

No Passover Bonus

By the time of the Corona outbreak, 87,000 residents of the PA worked every day to work in Israel, and 35,000 to work in the Yishuv localities. In the first weeks of the crisis, the number of pilgrims dropped to about 54,000 a day. Partly because of the closure of Bethlehem, and partly because workers are more than - 50 were not allowed to enter due to being in a risk group.

The Ministry of Defense's new guidelines are stricter with the incoming, and as of Wednesday this week the number stands at one-third. Only "essential workers" are allowed to come in, from now on engaged in agriculture, construction and medicine, provided that the employer finds a place for them to stay. This is an interesting precedent, especially when he comes from Minister Bennett's office. Also, an employee who enters and leaves will not be able to return until a new message.

Those who feel the difference in their pockets as a result of these decrees are the villagers who make a living from cleaning jobs, such as Muhammad Issa (43), who raves about the timing: "10,000 shekels extra I make every year to clean the Passover in the Jewish communities. I build another room for the house every year of this holiday. Of the surplus I give to my mother and the married girls. The Jews give me their chametz, I'm waiting for this holiday. "

"There is nothing to do," says the head of the Palestinian Hotel Association, Elias Alaraja. "In a fast-paced way, tourism, the most affected, loses $ 1.5 million daily in Bethlehem, and another million from tourism in Jericho, Ramallah and Hebron. Well, even when the PA does not recover, we will have to wait for Israel to recover, and then the EU will begin. In September-October, first drips will start, and then we will have to invest capital to get the business back in operation. A year from now I hope everything will work, but I don't know where The money will come. Everything will come back in the end. "