Minister of Health Yuli Edelstein this morning said that the rules will not be changed int he coming weeks to allow stores and malls to open.
The Association of Fashion and Commerce Stores responded with a statement that their stores will all be opening on Sunday and will follow the safety guidelines of the "tav hasegol" that was in effect after the previous lockdown, but they will open for business.
This is a shame and need not become a fight. I am tired of hearing "if shuls could be opened with ten people, then this or that can be opened a swell", but yeah - if it has been deemed that there is a safe way to allow people indoors with masks and social distancing and limited numbers of people at the same time and whatever other rules might be necessary, then let the stores open as well using the safety guidelines.
Store owners are struggling. The government talks about helping them, but by the time they actually do it is likely to be too little too late. The few thousand shekels stimulus the government might give is a drop in the bucket of the losses the businesses are incurring by staying shuttered. Forcing them to stay closed, when the government itself has decided there is a safe way to be open, is cruel, but it is also going to push people to just start ignoring and breaking the rules. And once that happens, there is no oversight and there will be no way to ensure rules are followed. It will descend into chaos.
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