The Jerusalem Post is reporting that Israel will not open their borders to foreign nationals in July. Previously the ban was extended to June 30 and now it will be extended through at least July 31.
There are exceptions, including returning married students, people attending the wedding of a sibling, child, or grandchild, and people attending a funeral of an immediate relative.
Israelis and foreigners who qualify for an exception to enter Israel must go into home quarantine for 14 days through at least July 31, though if you are attending a funeral you can request permission to enter the country for 48 hours without quarantine.
Israel plans to reopen to foreigners in phases, with citizens from countries with low morbidity to be allowed in first. But the date when the reopening will happen has been pushed back several times and seems likely to be pushed off as Israel is experiencing a sharp increase of new coronavirus cases as the country reopens their economy.
I previously wrote that it didn’t sound like Americans would make it to Israel this summer. At this point, it seems like wishful thinking that Americans will be able to visit Israel for the holidays in September and October.
When do you think Israel will open its borders to Americans?
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52 Comments On "Israel Won’t Open Borders To Foreign Nationals In July"
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NOT UNTIL 2021
They will open for the new school year there’s too much pressure from yeshivas and seminary’s
I can certainly see a scenario where they allow students in, with 14 day quarantine, but still don’t allow tourists in.
Unfortunately that’s not the pressure that concerns them. What is more concerning for any country and rightfully so Israel as well is the college and university students. Those they are letting in so I don’t think yeshivas will change anything.
The big question at this point is will single students be allowed in for Elul Zman, either to Yeshiva Gedola or to the gap year programs. That’s a huge question and impacts the planning of so many.
Of course they will be allowed in for Elul Zman. I thought that went without saying.
Impossible to make any predictions at this point. Nobody knows what the real numbers for herd immunity are, or what reinfection possibility is, or what preventative scalable measures can prevent transmission. We know as little now as we knew 4 months ago.
This can disappear as quickly as it appeared. There’s no way to explain על פי דרך הטבע how the daily hospitalization rate from COVID in NYC is less than 1 in 100,000, even after reopening and having gatherings for weeks. Every time we think we figured something out, הקב’ה shows us how absolutely clueless and not in control we are.
Agree 100%
I say not till December
MASA dumped seminaries and yeshivas.
Let’s hope it’ll open its borders for sukkas
There’s no way they are opening for sukkos without a vaccine readily available for all. Opening for sukkos means 10k foreigners coming from all over the place. Tourists won’t be allowed. Awful for the Israeli economy though which loses out on all that foreign money. Yeshivas and seminaries will have a program where they all fly together on the same flight to their respective buildings, and lock down there for 2 weeks together.
Love how all Americans seem to think that the taxes they pay on their “Baller” wine order from pyup for sukkos to impress their friends teenage children that they invite for a meal is what keeps the economy going. News Flash: Tourism makes up for 6.8 percent of Israel’s economy. Yes it is a lot but in comparison it’s a very small number. And let’s not forget what percent of that is from Asian tour groups that are coming throughout the year, so sukkos without Americans might be hard for many but definitely won’t kill no one yes the olive wood store in geula is not doing as well as they have but Israel’s economy is way stronger than that. Try for the billions of dollars of weapons that they sell to countries. Or perhaps the technology that comes out of there. But sadly for some, not the tourist.
+1
Did you survey the hotels, restaurants/bars, taxi industries, airport workers? Did you ask those unemployed or seeing their pay decimated that at least weapons are being sold?
How do they calculate what % of economy is tourists purchasing in Pyup (or anywhere else for that matter). I would imagine it is larger than they think (even without everything that is “off the books”
Bob, agreed! It’s a crazy statement by Zionist, as even if his numbers were correct, those numbers would trickle into other sectors of the economy, as those that don’t have the money or are unemployed will negatively affect other sectors.
I believe you mean 5.8%.
LOL. You literally just “ripped” and paraphrased my comment from June 16.
https://www.dansdeals.com/points-travel/israel/doesnt-sound-like-americans-will-able-visit-israel-summer/#comment-1477261
LOL.
No way does Israel want all these crazy American gap year kids running around. Also how would schools enforce two week quarantines. Let’s not even mention that the companies we buy our kids health insurance coverage from would either charge us a fortune. Does Israel want to cover all the possible medical costs that might arise from kids getting COVID. It will be. It will be a long time until our kids go!!
1. Also how would schools enforce two week quarantines.– By maintaining a strict and well supervised policy that for the first 14 days (and 2 shabbosim), all meals, learning, sleeping, and hanging out with be on the yeshiva grounds- or they will be expelled. It might mean having some Rabbeim/teachers sharing extra shifts to supplement the dorm counselors.
2. …buy our kids health insurance coverage from would either charge us a fortune. Not really. Egert & Cohen’s CHAI Student Health Insurance is slightly higher than prior years. It’s not like American health insurance is so dirt cheap.
3. Does Israel want to cover all the possible medical costs that might arise from kids getting COVID. They won’t have to, since yeshivas and seminaries require health insurance coverage to participate. As with the States, health insurers aren’t seeing tremendous impacts from healthcare claims, as most COVID cases don’t require hospitalization, and elective surgeries have been paused.
4. It will be a long time until our kids go. So while they are at University of Maryland, there will be others benefiting by learning in Israel for the year.
What is the hospitalization rate per 100k for kids 18-23? I’m sure you are making a data driven observation.
Of course, everyone can just make aliyah and then you won’t have to worry about being allowed in but that would require actually viewing Israel as more than a high end yeshivish vacation and a larger part of the religious Jew’s identity.
With Israel being roughly the same size as New Jersey, this may inadvertently accomplish heard immunity cross Israeli population.
They’re not even remotely close.
Wow, Dan, you are so clearly and entirely wrong. For someone with your level of travel experience, geographical awareness, cultural cognizance, and global perception, a comment like this is surprisingly ignorant.
Israel total population size 8.8 million,
New Jersey population size 8.8 million.
Israel total square mileage 8,550,
New Jersey total square mileage 8,729.
Dan, don’t be so cocky next time, and at the very least, you could’ve done a simple Google search.
Please do better next time.
Dude.
NJ has 175K cases and over 13K dead.
Israel has 22K cases and 300 dead.
What in the world are you talking about?!?
+1,000,000
Ken Zein, Dan was clearly talking about herd immunity, not the size of Israel. Think before you bash someone, especially the owner of the site.
Wow Ken Zein. I’m looking for more intelligence in an individual than just googling some population and square miles area on Wikipedia or Google.
Will El Al wait until foreigners are allowed to start flying again? What are the chances are there that they will fly from Israel to New York in September?
Likely.
Unlikely.
Plane talk travel is coordinating a group flight for August 23rd on ELAL and my son’s Yeshiva is encouraging us to take it with the assumption that the boys will be on the same flight together and then go straight to quarantine in the Yeshiva together…
Obviously they will be mingling with others in the airport and on their own flight as well so not sure how that will help.
They’re not recommending first-year students arrive now as they do not yet have a student visa only second-year students and up… although now with the latest developments being closed until the end of July I can’t see three weeks later opening up again..
Dan, what do you think?
Why don’t they just give everyone a rapid COVID test upon landing in Israel and not let them exit the airport until negative result
1. They’re not that accurate.
2. It can take days after infection until you will test positive.
Israeli’s that are exposed have to get 2 tests, at least 5 days apart, and still have to quarantine 14 days.
If they have 2 negative tests (and previously had a positive for the virus) quarantine is only 2 days
Very nice that they might let in the people with student visas for elul, what about the thousands of new students that were planning on coming for the first time as students
IF I HAVE ISRAELI PASSPORT AND WIFE HAS AMERICAN. WOULD THEY LET ME FLY BACK?/
only with a permit
Should be very easy to get a permit. Speak to consulate.
Nov 4.
FYI
RE: quarantine for 14 days
You could avoid the 14 days if you have 2 negative test and 1 antibody from the US and then another test in the airport for about $300, then quarantine for 1-2 days for results,
This is only for the exceptions
Thanks, Den
I had a test done in the airport there is no charge.
Also, an antibody test is according to the law not accepted but if you get a nice person it might be accepted officially you need a possitive and a negative
Stay away from AIM for health insurance for gap kids in Israel. All they care about is making money not ur kids health. Look at their hidden terms and conditions hiding behind their web page in plain language says not insurance. Checkout what type of co they are incorporated as here in States. Not health insurance co. Buyer beware!
See section 8.24 in AIM medical master agreement”not health insurance”. Read the fine print. buyer BEWARE!