Throughout the Corona pandemic, entry rules to Israel have been unclear, confusing and convoluted. Over the past 15 months, Chaim V’Chessed has documented dozens of sudden and inexplicable changes in rules. Each change has caused undue and unfair hardship for travelers to or from Israel.
Today, Israeli authorities reached a new level of absurdity. Toshavei keva (permanent residents) hold Israeli identity cards, and are generally regarded the same as Israeli citizens in nearly all matters. The primary difference is that they are ineligible to vote in national elections. During the entire pandemic, toshavei keva have shared all the same rules as Israeli citizens.
Suddenly, this afternoon, Chaim V’Chessed’s switchboard began lighting up with calls from passengers in London Heathrow and Paris De Gaulle airports. These travelers are all toshavei keva, attempting to board return flights to Israel. They were told that all passengers without Israeli passports (toshavei keva do not receive Israeli passports) must present entry permits to board flights to Israel! Until today, anyone presenting an Israeli identity document was allowed to travel. Now, with absolutely no notice, the rules appeared to have changed.
Chaim V’Chesed reached out to the head of Israel Border Control who laconically answered that, now, travelers must have Israel TRAVEL documents. He advised the travelers to contact Israeli embassies to request entry permits to Israel. We note that Israeli embassies around the world have been staggering under thousands of entry requests. It is not clear how they will be capable of servicing this new group now.
This shocking, unannounced change has left dozens of travelers stranded around the world. Chaim V’Chessed CEO Paysach Freedman has already contacted several Knesset members over this latest debacle. We will continue to advocate for a speedy reversal of this new policy.
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10 Responses
With Netanyohu on his way out of premiership, shall next Prime Minister make it his/her business ro reopen borders & cut out this insanity once & for all?
typical Israel the right does not know what the left is doing.Only country in the wrold that changes there rules every 2nd day
Israel has outperformed every other country in the world in the Covid pandemic. I don’t know the rules, or why they were changed abruptly, but Israel’s rule makers have done better than the rest of us, so I think they should be respected.
@yankele1 oh yes the right knows what the left is doing for whatever serves their purposes. To force quarantine, to snap tracking devices, and harass you, or if you get an exemption for the army and years later you apply for a drivers license, if someone passes away they cut payment of his pension bo bayom not one minute later. When it comes to screw its citizens the Zionist government knows everything they need to know. This is about power and nothing else.
This is written as an editorial, not a news article. Yeshiva world, you can do better than that. Send the news reporters back to school so you can earn respect as a site that reports news.
Let your readers decide if this is insane or preposterous. We are intelligent and can form our own opinions.
Ummm, I thought the vaccines will prevent infection so there should be no more worries about covid spread, right? Here in the US most Heimishe have not taken the vaccine and b”H we are have herd immunity, covid has mostly receded and it spread as most viruses do and not as a pandemic. Vaccines are bogus, lockdowns are bogus, mask wearing at this point is all political and about power-grabbing. Governments have ridiculous powers and close down many of their services to save money they don’t have ( and in the US it is diverted to programs that buy votes).
This report is fake news. There has been no such rule change reported anywhere – it’s not on any of the Israeli government websites, it’s not reported by the Amudim organization who also work on helping foreigners enter Israel and I personally know of an Israeli toshav keva who returned to Israel today. What is described in the report is either completely false or the result of a major misunderstanding and mixup.
This hysterical story is totally incorrect. If there is any insanity it’s the claim that the rules have changed when they did not. Neither the Knesset nor any government minister has changed any rules for toshavei keva – there has been no change on any government website – Amudim are an organization working in this area and they have not reported any rule change – my own son who is a toshav keva arrived in from France today and he did not have any issue at all with an entry permit – this report should be corrected.
Thank you Huju. Words of Wisdom. I just love the way people blast policymakers when they have absolutely no idea what’s really going on.
If you wish the benefits of being an Israeli citizen then you need to be an Israeli citizen. If you choose to live in Israel and remain a foreigner then you should expect to be treated no differently than any other foreigner.
Indeed reading the comments from people bragging how they are ignoring the gedolim of the haredi world and refusing to become vaccinated it makes perfect sense to keep them out of Israel. An no you don’t have herd immunity NY continues to have massive infections and deaths because of all the anti vaxxers. Israel has herd immunity galut does not.