Coronavirus: the masks of the Hebrew shoemaker

Text by: Alice Froussard

In the Palestinian Territories, the state of emergency has been extended for an additional month, 216 cases have tested positive for coronavirus, but authorities fear that it will intensify in the next two weeks with the return of many Palestinian workers, who were previously in Israel and who may return. So to fight against the spread of the virus, some do not lack inventiveness.

Publicity

From our correspondent in Ramallah,

Shortly after the discovery of the first cases of coronavirus in Bethlehem, a Palestinian shoemaker, Amjad Zaghir, asked himself the question: will there be enough mask for everyone? He owns a shoe factory in Hebron, a town in the south of the West Bank, and has an idea: why not make them myself?

So he buys a mask, studies it… searches all over the city for the right material to make it. It was the most complicated thing, he says, finding the famous fabric, which meets the standards of a medical mask. He then consulted pharmacists, then sewing workshops.

A few days later, it was done: its shoe factory transformed into a mask factory to protect itself from the coronavirus, with a daily production of 500 pieces.

But that was before he hired 20 people; now, he makes between 7,000 and 9,000 masks a day.

It is not profit that interests him, specifies the manager, he wants "to protect his people, to offer work opportunities, in a city where the unemployment rate is high ".

Amjad Zaghir therefore distributes his masks to hospitals, or even to the Palestinian police, to whom he sells them for a ridiculous price - 25 cents. And he became the first and only mask maker in the West Bank.

Newsletter With the Daily Newsletter, find the headlines directly in your mailbox

Follow all international news by downloading the RFI application

• Coronavirus
• Palestinian Territories

On the same subject

Concern about the spread of the coronavirus in Gaza

Palestinian workers blocked due to coronavirus

Coronavirus: in the West Bank, Bethlehem closed and tourism stopped