From churning out cocktails to cleaning up beaches

Netanya: Back when Israeli bartender Lotem Benbenishti was mixing cocktails for a living, the beach was where she went for fun.But on a recent sunny morning in northern Israel, she was hard at work — scooping plastic off a sandy beach and stuffing it into a garbage bag.

Benbenishti’s transition from the bar to the beach was forced by the novel coronavirus pandemic that has devastated Israel’s economy and left hundreds of thousands jobless.
Like many Israelis, the 28-year-old found her unemployment benefits did not cover her expenses, and she didn’t know when her restaurant pay would resume.

In switching jobs, Benbenishti chose a path taken by increasing numbers of Israelis, some of whom have had government help.The head of Israel’s Nature and Parks Authority, Shaul Goldstein, saw an opportunity in the labour market challenges caused by the pandemic.

“I thought about all the people sitting at home doing nothing, getting their unemployment wages — but at the end of the day, they have no reason to get up in the morning,” he told AFP. He asked Israel’s finance ministry for funding to hire 50,000 unemployed people to clean sites and remove invasive flora.

While the job is more physically demanding than bartending, Benbenishti said she finds it “much more satisfying”.For Goldstein, the programme offered a sudden influx of manpower to Israeli national parks in serious need of a cleanup.