Tragedy in Jerusalem's Machane Yehuda Market

The owner of a shop in Jerusalem’s Mahane Yehuda market place committed suicide Sunday as a result of ongoing financial pressures created by the nationwide coronavirus closures, Galei Tzahal reported.

The shop owner had operated his business for years in the ‘shuk’, or market, which has been shuttered in keeping with government restrictions on business in a bid to slow the spread of the coronavirus.

As a result of the restrictions, unemployment has surged in Israel from 3.6% in February, before the nationwide closures were put in place, to 27.4% in April.

Jerusalem Mayor Moshe Lion responded to the shop owner’s suicide in a statement Sunday, saying that he was “horrified and pained by the unfortunate news from the Mahane Yehuda market.”

“A business owner who couldn’t withstand the economic woes took his own life.”

Lion called on the government to lift restrictions on business activity in the Mahane Yehuda market.

“I call on the government to immediately open the market. The livelihoods of thousands of families are in danger. Every delay could cost lives.” Read more at Arutz-7