Fifth installment.- Jerusalem, the Holy City that receives more than three million tourists per year, has become a city of refuge for thousands of evacuees from Israel’s kibbutzim after the Hamas attacks on October 7.
“Jerusalem was opened as a city of refuge. We have 35,000 evacuees in hotels. The rest have been taken to hotels on the Dead Sea and Tel Aviv. There are about 250,000 displaced people from the south and the north,” says the vice mayor of Jerusalem, Fleur Hassan-Nahoum, Jewish-Spanish.
He specifies that entire families were transferred to hotels, some of them five stars. It was about keeping people from the same neighborhoods together, rather than separating them, so that the time they are away from their kibbutzim is more bearable and they can endure it.
“Schools have been created in hotels; but we have also opened all the schools in Jerusalem so that any evacuee can be accepted. If they use clothing, it is given to them free of charge. They also have psychological and babysitting services if they need it.”
Israel has 56,000 hotel rooms and 28,000 are being provided to refugees.
After the Hamas attacks, the vice mayor explains that the government took control of many hotels, and due to the economic stagnation caused by the Israel-Hamas War, hoteliers have had no choice but to receive the evicted because they have no other way. to obtain income.
Since the conflict broke out, commercial airlines no longer fly to Israel.
“Tourism has been completely paralyzed. We are living a nightmare much worse than with covid. The government pays the hotels very little, $80 per night per evacuee. That’s better than nothing. Still, not all hotels want to participate, especially those with a big name.
“But many do accept, although they are no longer receiving $500 a night. With $80, at least they get oxygen.”
Southern producers are selling their crops and products in improvised markets throughout the country.
“There is a lot of innovation here in how to help people. My 17-year-old daughter opened a center with friends to buy diapers and clothes. Nobody here stands with their arms crossed. “They care about everyone, and we are all together fighting a monster.”
Relive the tragedy
Jerusalem Deputy Mayor Fleur Hassan-Nahoum says that after hearing five sirens on October 7, her entire family went into the safe room of the house.
“I realized that something bad was happening and that it was an emergency, when I turned on the TV. In real time (real time) I saw what was happening. It was horrifying to hear people say that they were calling the police, the army, the television to warn that there were terrorists in their house and that they wanted to kill them. I had never seen anything like it”.
The irony of life, externally, is that a week before, they had celebrated the 50th anniversary of the Yom Kippur War (October 1973).
“That was a war that took us by surprise, and in that meeting we talked about whether that could happen; and I think that this time the army reacted very late.”
Externally, they are now experiencing moments of great national anguish, and on a personal level.
“Israel is a very small country. After October 7, everyone has gone to a funeral, to a shiva (seven-day mourning period after the burial), everyone knows someone kidnapped, someone who was killed, no one escapes being personally affected.”
How are we going to get out of this? she questions.
“We have to dismantle Hamas. “We will not be able to return to the south if this regime of genocide is not dismantled.”
The vice mayor of Jerusalem believes that after the War there will be many investigations to determine how the October 7 attacks occurred.
“What happened? We have the best security in the world, the best technology on the border. We know that girl soldiers warned of the danger on the southern border. They didn’t pay attention to them. They said they were hysterical. A demonstration of pure machismo. There were many mistakes to get to this point. Enemies are not stupid. “This attack was not a fight over land, they came to kill.”
But he also maintains that the internal division was something very negative.
“There were many factors for the attacks to occur. We gave 20,000 work permits to those from Gaza, and with that they thought things were better. They don’t want to realize that an enemy as brutal as Hamas cannot be bribed. If economic prosperity enters Gaza, things will calm down, they thought. “They put us to sleep, and that’s part of what happened, and they didn’t pay attention to the warnings.”
He claims that the world needs to see that the Israel-Hamas War is actually a war between Iran and the free world.
“Now it’s us, tomorrow it’s you. “Iran has already taken over Syria, Libya, part of Iraq, Yemen, Hamas and Hezbollah.”
Criticism of Israel
The vice mayor says she doesn’t understand why people in the United States and other parts of the world don’t want to see what Hamas is.
“How can you support them when they throw people from the LGBTQ community off the roofs; and since the Jews built a fairly developed state, we have to be the oppressor. It’s ridiculous! “We are the victims of a brutal massacre not seen since the Holocaust.”
He says that opposition to Israel in this war is the result of Hamas’s manipulation of the United States and liberal centers.
“There is anti-Semitism like there has not been in the last 3,000 years. The virus of anti-Semitism has mutated in the collective Jew, in the people of Israel.
“Islamist anti-Semites have gotten into liberal causes in a way that cannot explain why they support a group like Hamas that does not give rights to women or the LGBT community and marries 12-year-old girls.”
He points out that there is no right for journalists, nor freedom to speak whatever they want.
“What I do want to make clear is that anti-Semitism begins with the Jews, but it never ends, it does not stop there. That hatred extends to other groups.”
*This series of reports is possible thanks to a fellowship from Fuente Latina, a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization founded and directed by Leah Soibel. It has offices in Miami and Mexico City. Fuente Latina’s mission is to remove linguistic and geographic barriers, empowering journalists and influencers to cover stories about Israel and the Middle East. For more than 11 years, Fuente Latina has awarded fellowships to more than 350 Hispanic media professionals from 12 countries. The news reports generated through these trips have resulted in two Emmy Awards, and an Associated Press Award, among other recognitions.