The coronavirus pandemic has pushed the government to impose restrictions that shuttered many businesses, while allowing other businesses to reopen and continue their operations with seemingly no valid reason.
Two such businesses are located on Jerusalem’s Gaza Street, where they have been standing side by side for over two decades.
One is a beauty salon adorned with a sign that proudly displays “Salon Fantasia”, and is run and owned by 59-year-old Yelena Zinger, who opened the business back in 1993.
Next to the beauty salon stands “Viva Boutique”, a boutique clothes store owned by 74-year-old Aviva Dolberg, who has been running her business for over 40 years.
On Sunday morning, while Zinger was reopening her beauty salon after a long period of being closed due to the pandemic, Dolberg arrived at her clothes store to “dust off the merchandise” and hang on the door a sign that read “everything must go!”
“I came to clean and box the summer clothes, I also know the worst is yet to come, the winter,” says Dolberg, who says she has decided to close down her store for good.
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A poster of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reading 'closed due to me' on the door of a business that was forced to shut down during the pandemic
(Photo: Moti Kimchi)
“Each month, when I open up my store, I’m forced to pay a fine of NIS 15,000,” says Dolberg. “We will survive this pandemic, albeit emotionally, physically and financially crippled. I can’t sleep at night, I’m too full of fear."
Dolberg says that while she loves her neighbor, she fails to understand why Zinger's beauty salon - which is the same size as her own store - is allowed to open, while she can’t lest she be fined.
“Everything is upside down here,” says Dolberg, “I have no faith, we’ve been abandoned and there is no hope. I am miserable and feel this is extremely unfair.”
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Small business owners protesting in Rishon Lezion against the government's handling of the pandemic
(Photo: Yariv Katz)
According to Dolberg, “I’m going through the most miserable stage of my life right now. We don’t have a minister like [Haredi Interior Minister] Aryeh Deri who advocates for the reopening of the synagogues. I’ve been forced to take loans all this time… I have no choice left, I have to close down my business.”
Zinger agrees with her longtime friend: “I am extremely happy I’m allowed to open, and still, the reasoning behind such a decision makes no sense. It’s all politics, the decision makers don’t care about the people, they don’t give a damn.”