JERUSALEM (AP) – When Israel entered the lockout last spring, Jerusalem pub owner Leon Shvartz temporarily moved to save his business and adopted a style of delivery and takeaway that kept him afloat during the summer. .
With restaurants closed again, Shvartz’s business suffers to survive, fired 16 of its 17 employees.
By contrast, Israeli software company Bizzabo, which operates in the highly affected convention control sector, temporarily reinvented itself last spring by offering “virtual events”. It has more than doubled its sales and is expanding its workforce.
These stories of expansion and recession The development of Israel’s “digital divide. “
Even before the pandemic, Israel had one of the largest sources of income gaps and poverty rates among evolved economies, with one of the main sources of income, basically in the lucrative high-tech sector, while many Israelis were slightly controlled as public officials, in service industries, or as small business owners.
These gaps have widened as the national blockade, imposed last month, hit an economy that was already heavily affected by the first set of restrictions.
The consequences of the pandemic also exacerbated the ongoing divisions among Israeli Jews, pitting a largely secular majority against a harsh ultra-Orthodox minority.
It has been noted that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the target of months of mass protests against his mismanagement of the pandemic, favors his ultra-Orthodox partners at the expense of the common good. an economically devastating global blockade rather than specific restrictions on infection hot spots, adding many ultra-Orthodox communities, possibly to provoke their allies.
Israel’s deep social media divide has provoked a warning from Israeli President Reuven Rivlin.
“I feel like the air is full of gunpowder. I feel the fury in the streets,” Rivlin told parliament this week. “Israel’s tribalism is breaking the cracks, and accusing hands point from one component of society to another, from one tribe to another.
Netanyahu was first applauded for his handling of the virus crisis, after he temporarily sealed the border and imposed a blockade, which seemed to the epidemic.
But the blockade peaked, which brought unemployment to about 35% in April, with thousands of other people fired or fired, basically in low-paid jobs like retail and hospitality.
Although the maximum number of jobs returned as the economy reopened, the workload increased, especially in the fall, forcing the government to demand a moment of indefinite closure last month. According to official figures, more than 967,000 people, or nearly a quarter of the working population, have become unemployed.
Shvartz, which owns two bars and a craft beer company, Biratenu, controlled to move forward with its mail order business until restaurants opened during the summer, but safety standards limited the number of consumers it could serve, reducing sales.
Shvartz gave up a third of his leave and cut his own salary. Then the government announced its moment of lockout. Now he and his only worker have returned to focus on delivery activities.
“It looks like a garage,” he says. He estimates that it is at least 60% below pre-pandemic levels.
Alon Alroy, co-founder of Bizzabo, faced a similar existential crisis in early March when he learned that control of conventions was about to wear out. In what he described as “the most complicated month we’ve ever known,” he let a quarter of his squad pass as his team rushed to expand a new strategy.
At the end of the month, they focused on ‘virtual events’. The key, he said, was to move beyond Zoom’s popular calls and create a participation environment.
Software participants in giant online meetings to network or separate for personal meetings, as they would at a business conference of yesteryear.
“Everyone knew that the special occasion industry could disappear if we didn’t invent, in some way, the area of technology of occasions,” he said, referring to New York.
After his two quarters, Bizzabo rehired his laid-off staff and recruited another 40 people. Lately it employs approximately 150 other people in offices in Israel and New York.
While some high-tech Israeli corporations have been affected by the economic downturn, the industry as a whole would possibly be in its most productive year.
According to the nonprofit Start-Up Nation Central, Israeli corporations have little difficulty attracting investors. “Israeli generation corporations have raised $7. 24 billion this year, 30% more than at the same time last year,” said Uri Gabai, co-CEO of the group.
Jon Medved, founder and executive leader of Israeli venture capital firm OurCrowd, said Israel’s strong generation scene, the rest of the economy, reflects a global trend.
“It’s more accentuated, ” he said. What we’ve detected around the world is that the virus has a very strong two-speed economic impact. “
Medved said Israel was well positioned, given the many sector-focused corporations that flourished during the crisis. They come with virtual physical care and telemedicine, synthetic intelligence, cybersecurity, and generation for banks and online retailers. Israel’s new ties to the United Arab Emirates have provided a new source of cash-rich investors.
But as the scene of Israel’s generation thrives, many others are falling behind, creating divisions that have fueled the protests.
For more than 3 months, thousands of Israelis have organized weekly protests calling for Netanyahu’s resignation, mainly because of his control of the economy. Many protesters are other people who have lost their jobs or businesses.
Much of the public’s anger has also turned to ultra-Orthodox leaders, whose communities have disobeyed public protection rules, triggered coronavirus rates, and vehemently resisted calls for selective closures. Critics accuse Netanyahu of pampering his political allies to help him himself while on trial. corruption.
Israeli economist Dan Ben-David, founder of the Shoresh Institution and professor at Tel Aviv University, has been wary of these divisions for years as they are rooted in the country’s school system.
He said that in rural outlying areas, Arab communities and the ultra-Orthodox sector have long been neglected, leaving their academics ill-prepared for the fashion world.
“About a portion of young people in Israel get the third global education,” he said.
For the ultra-Orthodox, forgetfulness is intentional: leaders use their political influence to fund an educational formula that promotes scripture examination in subjects such as math and English.
“We are the country of the evolved world that allows parents to deprive their children of a fundamental program,” he said. “The fact that we’ve allowed it for decades makes us complicit in all this. “