Will diplomacy trump health in new Israeli COVID travel policy? - analysis

• Published date: 09 October 2021
• Author: MAAYAN JAFFE-HOFFMAN
• Publication title: Jerusalem Post, The: Web Edition Articles (Israel)

Health Ministry Director-General Prof. Nachman Ash told The Jerusalem Post that the country is in the final stages of a plan to allow travelers to freely enter the country as tourists without any special permission so long as they can prove they are fully vaccinated or recovered.

Ideally, he said, this proof would come in the form of a scannable and easily verifiable digital vaccination certificate, such as the Israeli Green Passes or those that members of the European Union's digital COVID certificate program can provide.

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"At least in the first phase, we are recommending that only those who have digital vaccination certificates" be allowed to freely enter Israel, Ash said. But he added that this decision is still under discussion.

One can imagine why: Israel's closest ally, the United States, is among those countries that generally do not provide such documentation and therefore travelers from America would still have to go through the special entry requirements and take a serological test upon arrival.

This puts the government in a dilemma. Can it ease travel restrictions for some travelers but not those from the US, who have been eagerly waiting a year and a half to reconnect with Israel?

On the other hand, if Israel does allow Americans into the country without a proper verification process in place, does that put Israel at risk of a fifth wave?

The failure of the previous government to effectively manage Ben-Gurion Airport over the past 18 months played a major role in exacerbating the coronavirus crisis that ultimately led to many of the more than 7,800 COVID-19 deaths. It also destroyed Israel's tourism industry, which in 2019 constituted 5.9% of the country's GDP.

This was largely because of former prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his government's unwillingness to put in place or follow through with any policy that might be deemed unpopular, especially among certain population groups.

This included waiting a year to require travelers to test for the virus on exit and entry from the country and refusing to label certain countries that Israelis wanted to travel to as red even when infection rates were high.

LAST SPRING, when Bennett still sat in the opposition, he defined Netanyahu's failure to manage Ben-Gurion as a 'folly," according to the definition provided by author Barbara Tuchman in her book The March...