Thousands of Israelis are still stuck abroad

The government is scheduled to convene tonight (Sunday) and discuss, among other things, the establishment of a special exceptions committee for those flying to Israel – but until then thousands of Israelis are still stuck abroad without the possibility of returning to Israel due to the decision to extend the closure and leave Ben Gurion Airport closed.

“I was thrown under train tracks and left alone to deal with,” said one of the passengers angrily, another passenger who left the baby with her mother and flew with her husband for a short vacation in Dubai: “I am at a loss.” In the face of the immediate closure of the sky, there are also those who feel betrayed: “The state has betrayed me.”

The one that has worked so far to allow Israelis to fly abroad from Ben Gurion Airport is the Exceptions Committee of the Ministries of Transportation and Health, but in the opposite direction, legal difficulties have arisen that will have to be resolved through legislation. Meanwhile, an Israir rescue flight scheduled to take off today for Frankfurt, Germany, has been postponed for 24 hours to allow the committee to be set up to authorize Israelis to return to Israel on the return flight.

On the other hand, a small group of Israeli passengers took off tonight for New York in the United States after receiving appropriate approval from the Exceptions Committee.

Nurit Peled took off in early January for Miami in the United States to help her son and daughter-in-law after the birth of her granddaughter by caesarean section. Since her flights back to Israel have been canceled – she has been left with no way to return to her family living in Kiryat Ono.

“The feeling is that I was thrown out of my country, betrayed by my country, and it’s a hard and scary feeling,” she said in despair. “I decided to fly to Miami to help my bride and son after a complex birth, due to having to help a family with two other small children at home. A week before the flight back to Israel I did a corona check, but then it was decided to close Ben Gurion Airport and my flight back was canceled.”

Nurit added angrily: “I am in a situation where it is not possible to buy plane tickets, I am stuck in Miami, and no one knows when the sky will open again. My home in Israel, I run a nursing home in the center of the country and I organized in advance for work for three weeks. They will close the sky in this way, from now to now, “she continued,” both in the first closure and in the second closure did not close the sky in this way. I can not believe I can not go home. I am in a hotel and I do not know how long I will be here. My credit line and I are constantly checking in the news in Israel what will be and when they will open Ben Gurion Airport. This is an unconstitutional step that harms me as a citizen of the State of Israel, “she claimed in frustration.

David flew with his wife and half-year-old daughter to France to help his wife’s father, who had started treatments for cancer, when in time he was informed that his father had also contracted the disease and was now left with no way to return to Israel.

“We left Israel in the second closure with the special approval of the director general of the Ministry of Transportation to help my wife’s sick father and we did not know when we would be able to see him again. After a while his condition improved following the treatments and we tried to return back to the country but since we were with a little girl we preferred to wait a bit because everyone who came was sent to hotels. “Unfortunately, I have been informed since then that my father was also diagnosed with cancer and we have no way to return to our home in Jerusalem,” David continued. We are in uncertainty and feel that the state has abandoned us. ”

Itai Elazar (21), a discharged soldier who flew to visit the family of his partner he knew during his military service, got stuck in California. “Even during the service, it was clear to me that upon release I would fly to meet the family of a friend of mine who served as a lone soldier,” he said. “We flew to her family in mid-November – and we have been here for three months. We planned to return to Israel in early January. Those who come to Israel for hotels, we decided to wait a little longer. We took into account that we would fly at the end of the closure, on January 31, but even then Ben Gurion Airport would be closed. We are really stuck and the money is already starting to run out, “he added,” the feeling is that they are leaving us in the air and not even giving us an expectation of when we can return. The country has forgotten that it has thousands of citizens who just want to return home. ”

“Because of the talk of a new mutation that has developed here, we have put ourselves in a quarantine and we hardly leave the house,” he continued, “I do not understand how my country leaves me like this outside my house. I love the country, I served in the IDF, but the feeling right now Very hard, as if they had thrown me under the tracks and left me to deal with my problems alone. They will at least give us options to return home, even with all the restrictions we want. “

Eden (30) left her baby in Israel while flying for a vacation in Dubai with her husband and friends. “We flew last Wednesday, when it was possible to fly, and as soon as they said they were going to close Ben Gurion Airport I immediately went to be checked to Corona, but the answers did not arrive on time so I could not board the flight,” she said. And to be at liberty after birth in the shadow of the corona and the incessant fear. I took a risk on this flight, with my mother taking care of the child and not being able to be with him for so long, other than the fact that he needs me and my husband. “We are at a loss here and I am not able to return to my child I left in the country,” said Eden.

Erez, 49, an Israeli living in Europe, can not hide his anger. “In Europe we are treated like crazy,” he said. From it, although there is no mass vaccine in Europe and there are many more sick and dead.

“Anyone who presents a negative corona test can fly. Point,” Erez continued, “instead of closing the gate of the country that serves millions of innocent people, Torah studies should be closed but there is no courage for that. It is a scandal on a historical scale, and the world knows it and mocks us. I have friends who bought tickets to undergo medical treatment they were ordered to, such as oncology tests or other life-saving treatments, or were about to buy an apartment and bought tickets for two weeks, and now just wept bitterly and debated whether to travel or not because they could not afford to be detained in the country for a month Days, pay thousands of euros for accommodation, and wait helplessly until the government opens its gates. There are basic human rights – where is the High Court? Is he in isolation? We are turning an entire country into a prison disproportionately. “