ISRAEL TRANSFORMED

jerry-rigged pieces of wood which act as a lock.

In the weeks after Oct. 7, some people feared that some Hamas operatives had headed north, and in Tel Aviv hotlines were overwhelmed by calls about suspicious characters. El Halev Israel is a non-profit organization that runs empowerment self-defense classes. On the back of soaring demand it started Zoom lessons, consulted those who’d worked in war zones, and adjusted classes for female sexual-violence victims to be relevant to men, said Adi Wimmer, the executive director.

Lawyer Neomi Shenitzky is one of hundreds of people to have joined one of the newly formed Neighborhood Watch teams, a grass-roots effort that has since been embraced by the municipality, which provides them with specially marked hats and shirts.

In her suburb of Nahalat Yitzhak, the teams patrol the streets from 8pm to midnight, either on foot or bicycle. They carry flashlights, walkie-talkies and personal weapons. There are 50 such groups in the Tel Aviv area with about 1,500 volunteers. Similar teams have sprung up elsewhere as well, often backed by municipalities.

All of these developments have produced some calm — except in Israeli Arab towns, where residents suffer from even greater anxiety than their Jewish counterparts, according to a poll by the Israel Democracy Institute. A number of Israeli Arabs were killed and kidnapped in the Oct. 7 attacks.

Roll, the lawmaker from the opposition Yesh Atid party, said that allowing more citizens who pass government scrutiny to carry guns is necessary to help people to feel safe. The government may revoke the licenses once peace is restored, he added.

No one expects that to be soon.

“The fear and vulnerability will follow the society for some time,” said Orbach, the Hebrew University historian.