A medical worker tests an Israeli youth for coronavirus at a basketball court turned into a coronavirus testing center in Binyamina, Israel, Tuesday, June 29, 2021. Israel’s prime minister is urging the country’s youth to get vaccinated as coronavirus case numbers have crept up in recent days due to a localized outbreak of the Delta variant. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)
Mark Okrent – A Uniquely Israeli Experience
I think that my North American and British friends might be interested in the following Israeli anecdote which I experienced today.
This morning, I received a Whatsapp message from one of the “old” men I meet with every Sunday morning for several hours.
He informed the members of our group that he had not felt well, went for a Corona test and was found to be positive for Corona. He suggested that the rest of us should also get tested.
He also informed us that in Kfar Saba, where we live, Pikud Haoref which is the Israeli Army’s Homefront Command, had set up a testing centre at a local religious technological boys high school – Zevulun Hammer Torah u’Mada school.
We came to the school where there was a line of people waiting to go in for testing. While waiting in the line, we had to scan a QR code which opened a form on our mobile phone. The form requested information such as address, our HMO (Maccabi), birth date, etc..
Once we completed the form, a bar code appeared on the phone. A person near the line then scanned the bar code with a hand held scanner which printed out an id number sticker which he gave me. There were about 50 people ahead of me, but a young Arab man (who works there) came up to me, asked if I had an Israeli Government-issued Senior Card (which I have) and then informed me that I don’t have to wait in line.
He took me around to the head of the line into the school where there were four other young Arab men. One took my id number sticker, attached it to a test tube. His name was Jihad (which some of you may know as being a common Arab name meaning “Holy War”).
One of the next two swabbed my mouth and nose nostrils with a long Q-tip which he inserted into the test tube and sealed and the third one inserted the test tube into a plastic bag… and I was finished. It was so quick that I didn’t get the names of the other young men other than the first one and that only because I had been informed by the man who guided me in that I should go to Jihad ahead of the next person waiting in the line. The whole process took about 10-15 minutes, most of which I spent filling in the form on my phone.
Only in Israel would you have a Testing Centre operated by the Israeli Army, manned by Israeli Arabs and located in a religious Jewish school.
By the way, there was no charge for the test.
