Israel will close its only major airport for a week, in an effort to combat the spread of the coronavirus and stop the new variants that are emerging.
Washington Post rEPORTS that Israel’s cabinet agreed on Sunday to stop all entry and exit from Ben Gurion International Airport until at least the end of January. Freight flights, medical evacuations and “firefighting flights” will be exempted from the rule.
“No nation has done what we are going to do – we seal the country tightly,” said the Israeli prime minister. Benjamin Netanyahu
Benjamin (Bibi) NetanyahuMORE. “We are doing this to prevent the virus from mutating and to make sure that we are making rapid progress with our vaccination campaign.”
The rule will be extended to Jewish immigrants traveling to the country under the Return Law, Post reports.
The UK’s most infectious variant of the coronavirus has been detected in Israel, the Post reports, contributing to Israel’s decision to shut down the world. Another new strain has been discovered that is thought to have originated in South Africa.
The Post notes that Israel has excelled in administering doses of Pfizer coronavirus vaccine, with 27% of its population receiving the first dose. However, the country has received international condemnation for refusing to provide vaccines to Palestinians in its occupied territories.
“Nothing can justify today’s reality in parts of the West Bank, where people on one side of the street receive vaccines, while those on the other do not, depending on Jews or Palestinians,” the director of Israel and Palestine told Human Rights. Watch (HRW) Omar Shakir in a statement.
“Everyone in the same territory should have fair access to the vaccine, regardless of their ethnicity.”
Palestinian leaders have said they have no funds to pay for coronavirus vaccines. Israeli Health Minister Yuli Edelstein said Israel is not responsible for providing vaccines to Palestinians, but acknowledged that it would be in Israel’s interest to do so. However, Edelstein said any vaccines provided to Palestine would come after Israel’s population was vaccinated.