A senior Health Ministry official slammed the ruling of the Supreme Court on Wednesday deeming the government’s daily quota of returning travelers as illegal.
“I was afraid that political elements would make such decisions on the eve of the election, but it was the Supreme Court who stabbed us in the back,” the official said.
Regarding claims by other health officials who agreed with the ruling, saying that the only way to prevent variants from spreading is enforcing quarantine, he said: “There’s no enforcement and there won’t be.”
Meanwhile, Kan News reported on Wednesday night that seven Israelis who arrived in Israel on a flight from Ethiopia on Tuesday were diagnosed with the coronavirus, with some of them carrying the South African variant.
Coronavirus czar Prof. Nachman Ash also criticized the ruling. “The decision is worrying. It enables the entry of many dangerous variants into Israel. We have taken many steps to prevent this, and it is a pity that we are now putting the encouraging morbidity data at risk. The Supreme Court’s decision could lead to a wave of high morbidity and dangerous variants entering Israel.”
Deputy Health Minister Yoav Kisch also slammed the ruling: “The Supreme Court is taking responsibility for the entry of variants into Israel. Good luck to us.”
Knesset Speaker Yariv Levin said on Army Radio that “judges come and say ‘We’ll endanger everyone’s lives for a constitutional principle derived from a non-existent principle.’”
But other health experts agreed with the ruling. “The solution to the variants is more testing and enforcement of quarantine, not a hermetic closure,” Lion Poles, a member of the Health Ministry’s pandemic team told Ynet.
“I say this based on how other countries responded. Even countries that were fighting high morbidity didn’t close their borders.”
(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)
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4 Responses
When the Supreme Court was at it, why didn’t they already reopen the border to all members of the Jewish faith? & especially all members of the Jewish faith testing negative or/& vaccinated?
Of course, variants will continue to generate. One possible solution is to join the worldwide protests against 5G (and WiFi in schools). This has been widely studied and is considered a major ‘immune system weakener’.
the Israeli Supreme Court is a entity to itself. It is above law and makes and breaks laws. It has long over stepped its mandate. The judges should be fired and or put in jail. they are trying to make Israel into the liberal insanity of the USA.
> “based on how other countries responded. Even countries that were fighting high morbidity didn’t close their borders.”
What are they talking about? Each country is in a different “phase” and their opening and closing borders depends on specific internal and external conditions.
Here in Canada the border to the U.S. has been closed (except for limited commercial transport, like food) since what seems forever and has only recently barely opened a crack for private citizens.