It's not business as usual in Jerusalem's Old City

Описание: (29 May 2020) LEAD IN:
Jerusalem's Old City struggles to get back to business after the coronavirus lockdown.

STORY-LINE:
Jerusalem's Old City, once a bustling shopping area filled with tourists, now bears the marks of months of virus lockdown.
Although movement restrictions have largely been lifted, shopkeepers are struggling to adapt to the new normal – one without visitors.
Airports remain closed and so do most shops in the Old City.
Israel began restricting movements in late February and by early March the country came to a standstill.
The many tourists that flock to Jerusalem, especially around Easter in April, could not visit.
"Many people lost their jobs, especially the shopkeepers, because their livelihood depends on the tourists," says Michel Behnam, a Syriac Orthodox Christian whose family has run a small market at the entrance to the Old City for decades.
"And nobody is here to buy," Behnam adds.
Since the lockdown, religious services had largely been held without the faithful attending them.
Sacred sites such as the Holy Sepulchre, where Jesus is believed to have been crucified and entombed before his resurrection, opened earlier this week to a limited numbers of visitors.
The Muslim holy site of al-Haram al-Sharif, know to Jews as Temple Mount, is expected to open on Sunday.
Israel has counted more than 15,000 coronavirus infections and just over 200 deaths.
But it has slowed its infection rate and begun reopening shops.
Schools are expected to begin to reopen next week.

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