Fury in the gymnastics industry over the government's decision to order the closure of the halls • "populist step, we have no adhesions"

Corona restrictions: The Israeli government earlier on Monday decided on a series of restrictions aimed at preventing the outbreak of the second wave of the epidemic, including closing businesses such as clubs and bars, swimming pools and gyms and other restrictions.

Return the wheel after? Return of the gyms to the activity, archive // ​​Photo: Moshe Ben Simhon, Samuel Buchris

But the decision is another, economic side, and as a result many businesses are left worrying about their fate and future. The gymnasium owners claim that the decision regarding them is not due to the amount of infections in the institutes, which they claim is low, but is due to populism.

Haim Frankel, CEO and owner of the Space Fitness Network, spoke about the decision and told Israel Today: "We are in a total market. No one has talked to us until this moment. We get all the updates from the news updates. 

"To date, no one has made a substantive discussion in the health ministry about the gyms and we have not heard any claims about our treatment once we opened the gyms, but vice versa," continued Frankel. "The gyms opened on May 7, well before the restaurants, event halls and hotels. On May 27, the day the other activities opened, the morbidity did not increase, but on the contrary - it went down. We have a million trainers in the industry and fact and we have not seen an increase, "he claimed. 

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Frenkel went on to say that "new research in the UK proves that the chance of infection is zero. Immigration began with the opening of restaurants, bars, worlds and event halls. Unfortunately, we were dragged into this event for our niche. In other countries, the gyms opened first. So much more than the synagogues. So the move to close us is a very populist move.

"Watching a total collapse of the industry"

"The average first beat of the fall in revenue was 40%. The industry operated with over 2,000 fitness clubs when 200 clubs were closed after the first wave. I expect this wave to be a total collapse. This wave will be much more dramatic according to the messages I receive now The first wave didn't know what to expect. People lost patience now. They lost confidence. Who will sign up for the gyms today?

"The absurdity is that there was no adherence to the area," Frenkel continued, "there is a campaign of intimidation and demonization towards the industry. We have no connections like the Ministry of Transport, the transport minister fights on the trains. We have no one fighting for us. I spoke to people in the Ministry of Health who said the problem was by sectors and the industry. Ours was not defined as a problem but in the middle.

"Nobody fights for us like the synagogues or the hotels. It is a neatly organized industry. It has no relationship with the government and it lacks political power. Nevertheless, it employs many workers. Instead of strengthening us and encouraging our activities, they come and say close I have a thousand-square-foot clubs where the distances are tremendous, there is heat measurement and masks. Why do they have to close? Just say let's come and kill the industry.

"We do not know what will happen to our employees now. I employ over 800 employees. What to send them home? The property owners call us. I rent NIS 3 million a month on 20 branches. Who will compensate me? These are just the rent expenses."

"Easy to close a branch, even without justification"

The Holmes Place group also claimed similar things. The group said that "Holmes Place and the public trainers are angry and frustrated at the decision to close the fitness clubs. From May we go above and beyond to operate the fitness clubs safely while strictly maintaining the health of the trainers. The way we acted.

"In a recent report by the Ministry of Health, gyms and pools are ranked at the bottom of the list of places they were infected with in Corona. We will also add that in the recent large-scale study of Europe in MEDRXIV, which examined about 4000 people, there is a significant chance of being infected with Corona clubs We think this is a populist course, it is very easy to close a branch that is supposedly "non-economic" to Israel without any real justification.

"We wholeheartedly believe that gyms could also be left open these days and allowed to maintain their physical and mental health because a healthy mind lies in a healthy body. At the same time, we are seeing the benefit of our clients before our eyes and we are now working to find alternative and available solutions that will allow For them to continue to maintain the training routine.

 "The sports industry didn't help, drown us"

Yuval Liebling, one of the leaders of the organization of business owners in the sports and fitness industries in Israel and the CEO of the fitness network also told about his frustration with the decision. He said, "choosing to close a sector that has suffered through the crisis has a number of extremely ill-verified patients, fewer than restaurants, fewer synagogues, schools, meetings, public transport, street shops, hotels, events and more.

"The 60,000 customers of the Profit network and thousands of workers re-enter the unemployment cycle while meetings and synagogues where the rate of infection was much higher continue to operate because of coalition considerations. Four months from the beginning of the crisis and the Profit network, as well as most of the sports industry, has not received financial aid from the state for two months already We have been closed. In the last two months since opening, in early May, we have made great efforts to get back to normal and with many forces we have been able to stay with our heads slightly above the water and here comes the government decision and drowns us into dark bottoms, "Lovling concluded.