During the past year, Israel’s Homefront Command has been tasked with providing COVID-19 tests, ensuring that local communities and municipal officials understand Health Ministry regulations, and other endeavors connected with combatting the illness. These circumstances gave Colonel Nissim Tourgeman an opportunity to work with the Arab villages in his area of responsibility. Interviewed by Udi Shaham, he notes the positive effects of the resulting cooperation for both the military and the civilians:
What might seem natural in non-Arab [municipalities], things that we learn in the army and practice in management, were new to some Arab mayors and leaders. We brought what we know, and gave them tools that would help them overcome the obstacles that the virus brings with it.
[For our part], we didn’t know the power of traditions, such as condolence visits after a family death. In the village of Ein Mahel, we saw that the death rate was getting out of control, and became proportionally larger than all the communities around it. . . . It happened that someone died of the coronavirus, and many of his family members also had it without knowing—and without symptoms. Then half of the village came to pay their condolences and got it too.
We had a hard time convincing people to stop that custom. By cooperating with the mayor and religious figures, we managed to replace the physical gathering with phone calls. Then, the infection rate suddenly dropped.
[N]ow, we see more and more Arab youth that want to join the Home Front Command and volunteer. . . . It became natural to see Home Front Command soldiers in the Arab towns. . . . Once, when we were operating in Nazareth and people were standing in line, I heard someone asking his friend, “Who are these soldiers? What are they doing here?” and the friend replied, “It’s okay, it’s the Home Front Command. They are here to help us.”
Read more on Jerusalem Post: https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/coronavirus-improves-israeli-arab-view-of-the-idf-officer-661451