10 aug 2020
Head of Knesset committee on handling pandemic scolds top Health Ministry official for failing to produce a plan that would allow resumption of international travel, which is set to take effect on August 16
Israel's lack of control over the coronavirus spread means that only four other nations in the world are currently willing to admit its nationals, representatives of the Foreign and Health ministries told lawmakers on Monday.
The officials told the Knesset committee on handling the coronavirus pandemic that just Croatia, Montenegro, Bulgaria and Rwanda will let Israelis enter the country and only if they provide a negative test for COVID-19.
The committee, which has final say over policies on the virus, had met to discuss the government decision to resume international travel to and from Israel on August 16.
But its members were told by Dr. Asher Shalmon, the director of the International Relations Division at the Health Ministry, that he could not produce a list of nations considered safe enough to allow their citizens to enter the country or a plan for quarantining new arrivals.
"You are not presenting us with a plan," committee chair Likud MK Yifat Shasha-Biton said.
"What is the problem? It is bad enough if you do not wish to reveal the information, and it's worse if you don't have enough data to do so," she said.
Shalmon said there was a proposal under consideration that would allow Israelis to return from abroad without having to isolate for 14 days, if they had traveled to countries considered to have a low infection rate.
He said, however, that he was not authorized to specify which countries were being considered by the government.
"We do not demand a COVID-19 test for returning Israelis, but other countries may demand one before allowing entry, and we must then provide a test for those wishing to travel," he said.
Yamina MK Ayelet Shaked slammed government's slow implementation of a plan to resume air travel, singling out the lack of testing capabilities at the country's airports.
"I find it hard to believe that a country that can locate and remove Iran's nuclear archive cannot set up proper testing at the airport," she said.
Israel's lack of control over the coronavirus spread means that only four other nations in the world are currently willing to admit its nationals, representatives of the Foreign and Health ministries told lawmakers on Monday.
The officials told the Knesset committee on handling the coronavirus pandemic that just Croatia, Montenegro, Bulgaria and Rwanda will let Israelis enter the country and only if they provide a negative test for COVID-19.
The committee, which has final say over policies on the virus, had met to discuss the government decision to resume international travel to and from Israel on August 16.
But its members were told by Dr. Asher Shalmon, the director of the International Relations Division at the Health Ministry, that he could not produce a list of nations considered safe enough to allow their citizens to enter the country or a plan for quarantining new arrivals.
"You are not presenting us with a plan," committee chair Likud MK Yifat Shasha-Biton said.
"What is the problem? It is bad enough if you do not wish to reveal the information, and it's worse if you don't have enough data to do so," she said.
Shalmon said there was a proposal under consideration that would allow Israelis to return from abroad without having to isolate for 14 days, if they had traveled to countries considered to have a low infection rate.
He said, however, that he was not authorized to specify which countries were being considered by the government.
"We do not demand a COVID-19 test for returning Israelis, but other countries may demand one before allowing entry, and we must then provide a test for those wishing to travel," he said.
Yamina MK Ayelet Shaked slammed government's slow implementation of a plan to resume air travel, singling out the lack of testing capabilities at the country's airports.
"I find it hard to believe that a country that can locate and remove Iran's nuclear archive cannot set up proper testing at the airport," she said.
3 aug 2020
Massive aircraft carrying U.S. military freight trucks touches ground and will transport defense system from Israel to defend American troops stationed in battlefields abroad video
The world’s largest cargo plane landed in Ben Gurion Airport, carrying U.S. military ‘Osh Kosh’ trucks that were fitted with Iron Dome missile defense system batteries purchased by the U.S. Army before leaving Israel, the Defense Ministry announced on Monday.
In August 2019, The ministry had signed a $373 million deal with the U.S. Defense Department to sell two off-the-shelf Iron Dome batteries to the American Army from Rafael which include 12 launchers, two sensors, two battlement management centers, and 240 interceptors.
Washington wanted to have the batteries delivered by 2020.
The system, developed by the ministry and prime contractor Rafael “will be used to defend U.S. military troops against a wide range of ballistic and aerial threats,” a Defense Ministry statement said.
The unloading of the Russian-made Antonov cargo plane was closed to the press.
This is the mammoth aircraft's second trip to Israel after it touched ground on the Holy Land in 2008.
The Antonov An-225 Mriya was created in the 1980s in Soviet Ukraine and is the heaviest aircraft ever built.
The AN-225 has over 30 wheels, six engines and a wingspan of 290ft. The aircraft has a range of 15,400 km when unloaded and 4,500 when fully loaded.
The aircraft had taken off from Maine and is expected to make refueling stops in Scotland and France.
The world’s largest cargo plane landed in Ben Gurion Airport, carrying U.S. military ‘Osh Kosh’ trucks that were fitted with Iron Dome missile defense system batteries purchased by the U.S. Army before leaving Israel, the Defense Ministry announced on Monday.
In August 2019, The ministry had signed a $373 million deal with the U.S. Defense Department to sell two off-the-shelf Iron Dome batteries to the American Army from Rafael which include 12 launchers, two sensors, two battlement management centers, and 240 interceptors.
Washington wanted to have the batteries delivered by 2020.
The system, developed by the ministry and prime contractor Rafael “will be used to defend U.S. military troops against a wide range of ballistic and aerial threats,” a Defense Ministry statement said.
The unloading of the Russian-made Antonov cargo plane was closed to the press.
This is the mammoth aircraft's second trip to Israel after it touched ground on the Holy Land in 2008.
The Antonov An-225 Mriya was created in the 1980s in Soviet Ukraine and is the heaviest aircraft ever built.
The AN-225 has over 30 wheels, six engines and a wingspan of 290ft. The aircraft has a range of 15,400 km when unloaded and 4,500 when fully loaded.
The aircraft had taken off from Maine and is expected to make refueling stops in Scotland and France.
5 may 2020
The Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates today accused Israel of discriminating against Palestinian residents of East Jerusalem who want to return home in light of the worldwide coronavirus outbreak.
It said in a statement that in its efforts to gather information about Palestinians stranded abroad, mainly students, due to the coronavirus outbreak in order to help them to return to their homes, it became clear that the Israeli authorities have been discriminating against the Palestinian residents of occupied Jerusalem who carry Israeli residency documents.
It said that Israel puts obstacles in the way of the foreign ministry trying to help the stranded Jerusalem residents to return to occupied East Jerusalem while also preventing them from coming home through Israel Tel Aviv airport.
It recalled one case of Khader Abu Ilyya, an East Jerusalem resident and lecturer at Al-Quds University, who travelled out of Tel Aviv airport to the United States on March 14 and when he returned home through Tel Aviv airport a month later he was denied entry at the airport and sent back to the US even though he had a valid return visa.
The ministry said that Israel has demanded to separate Palestinian holders of Jerusalem identity card from the rest of the Palestinian students from the West Bank who are waiting in Jordan to come home and refused to allow the Palestinian embassy in Jordan to provide them with any assistance while not doing anything to help the Jerusalem residents in their efforts to return home.
It said in a statement that in its efforts to gather information about Palestinians stranded abroad, mainly students, due to the coronavirus outbreak in order to help them to return to their homes, it became clear that the Israeli authorities have been discriminating against the Palestinian residents of occupied Jerusalem who carry Israeli residency documents.
It said that Israel puts obstacles in the way of the foreign ministry trying to help the stranded Jerusalem residents to return to occupied East Jerusalem while also preventing them from coming home through Israel Tel Aviv airport.
It recalled one case of Khader Abu Ilyya, an East Jerusalem resident and lecturer at Al-Quds University, who travelled out of Tel Aviv airport to the United States on March 14 and when he returned home through Tel Aviv airport a month later he was denied entry at the airport and sent back to the US even though he had a valid return visa.
The ministry said that Israel has demanded to separate Palestinian holders of Jerusalem identity card from the rest of the Palestinian students from the West Bank who are waiting in Jordan to come home and refused to allow the Palestinian embassy in Jordan to provide them with any assistance while not doing anything to help the Jerusalem residents in their efforts to return home.
