Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu announced on Monday that Israel will once again undergo a full lockdown for the 7th day of Pesach and that no travel will be allowed between towns or cities anywhere in the country. The lockdown will begin at 5:00 p.m. on Tuesday Erev Chag and continue until 5:00 a.m. on Thursday morning.

Netanyahu opened his speech by paying respects to the former Rishon LeZion and Separdic Chief Rabbi Eliyahu Bakshi Doron: “During normal times tens of thousands of people would have accompanied his funeral procession. However, his family and students kept all of the restrictions of the Health Ministry and held the levaya according to those restrictions.”

Netanyahu then announced the lockdown. “It is mandated for everyone to stay within the confines of their towns or cities. You are all asked to celebrate the holiday with your nuclear family just like you did on the first day of Pesach. During the Memunah celebration, it is still prohibited to celebrate with extended family and friends in parks and outdoors. It is prohibited for me as well. Normally, this is a celebration of the entire nation together, but this year it must be different.”

Netanyahu also apologized for his own infraction during the previous lockdown when his son came to visit him. “I am also judging myself without reprieve and am correcting my ways. During Seder, my son Avner was with me. He spends many hours here each day and sleeps in an attached apartment that is within the compound. I know that there was a lot of criticism that was raised because of this. I now believe that it would have been correct to be stringent with regard to this.”

Netanyahu added that the government is preparing a financial plan for the country’s exit strategy from the series of lockdowns and confining regulations that have been increasingly put in place over the last month causing Israel’s unemployment rate to oar to more than 25 percent of the labor force. “We will make our final decisions and put the plan into action towards the end of the week. This plan will affect both the labor economy and the education system. The steps we take will be slow and responsible. We are looking at all levels of society and all areas of industry that are important to our economy and we are attempting to come up with the most responsible and effective plan to exit this crisis in a step-by-step manner. Life will be different after this crisis than what it was before.”

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)