Israel

2021

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Second Gold for Israel – Ever

Israeli gymnast Artem Dolgopyat, 24, took home the gold in floor gymnastics and is already planning for the 2025 Olympics.

Dolgopyat’s medal is Israel’s second-ever gold at the Olympics.

Speaking at a Monday press conference, Dolgopyat said, “We’re not going to stop; we’re going to move forward with our focus on Paris and get ready for that and bring honor to the country. We need to start thinking of a new routine and check all the new rules, and we’ll start working and see what scores we get.”

Sergey Weissburg, Dolgopyat’s longtime coach, added, “We’ll take a week, or a month, and then we’ll start working again. We have a plan to continue to the next Olympics — the whole gymnastics team as well as Artem.”

Dolgopyat himself is unassuming and uninterested in his newfound fame, and when he returns to Israel he wants to continue to focus on his sport.

“I don’t know what it will be like when I go back to Israel — until now, I definitely wasn’t well-known or recognized. I want to continue to be modest the way I am, and not think about the things around me and just do my work,” he said.

“I don’t really want all that other stuff,” he added. “I think it will only put more pressure on me. I think bringing honor to the country and getting medals … is much more important than everything else.”

Though he said his parents believed in him from his first day, Dolgopyat said, “When I think about it now, I want to cry. I didn’t totally believe it would happen … but all the people around me supported me, and I’m so happy that I’m surrounded by them and they always pushed me further and believed in me.”

About the prize, he added, “My dream was to get the medal, not how much money I’ll make. Everything else is just a bonus.”

Dolgopyat is not Jewish, although his father is Jewish. In Israel, he is not able to marry a Jew. The media has taken Dolgopyat and made his situation a cause célèbre for taking marriage in the Jewish state away from the rabbinate.

Dolgopyat notes that his marriage plans should not be nabbing headlines and swaying public opinion.

“It’s my personal life and I think it’s not so appropriate to talk about in front of the whole country,” he said, when asked about it. “These are things that are in my heart and my own personal issues so I’d rather not answer that.”

More Quarantine for Travelers

Those coming to Israel from 18 countries will be required to undergo stricter quarantine protocols starting next week, said the Knesset on Tuesday.

The coronavirus cabinet is slated to convene at the Knesset on Tuesday afternoon, amid a sharp rise in new COVID-19 cases. On Monday, 3,818 new cases of COVID-19 were confirmed in Israel, with a test positivity rate of 3.79 percent. There are currently 22,375 active cases in the country, with 420 of them hospitalized; 221 patients are in serious condition with 46 of them on ventilators.

In an effort to thwart another far-reaching pandemic, the Knesset Labor, Health and Welfare Committee approved the Health Ministry’s request to add 18 more countries to the

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list of destinations from which returnees, including those vaccinated, will require a seven-day home quarantine after two negative tests.

The new additions include: the United States, Germany, France, Greece, Egypt (including Sinai Peninsula), Ukraine, Italy, Iceland, Eswatini (formerly Swaziland), Botswana, Bulgaria, the Netherlands, Tanzania, Malawi, the Czech Republic, Cuba, Rwanda and Tunisia.

Countries already on the list are: the UAE, Myanmar, Guatemala, Honduras, Zimbabwe, Namibia, Colombia, Fiji, Mongolia and Cambodia.

Costa Rica, Seychelles, Zambia, Paraguay, Uganda, Liberia, Panama and Kenya will be removed from the list as of Sunday; those 18 new countries listed above will enter the list officially next Wednesday.

The same quarantine rules apply for Israelis who return home from the countries that Israelis are banned from visiting: Spain, Argentina, Brazil, South Africa, India, Mexico, Russia, Belarus, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Cyprus, Turkey, Georgia and the UK. Returnees who left Israel after the ban went into effect are also expected to pay a fine of NIS 5,000 ($1,500).

Overall, 42 countries are on the list of those from which returnees must quarantine for seven days with two negative PCR tests – or 14 days without.

According to Health Ministry figures presented at the Knesset committee hearing, 141 people with COVID returned from the U.S. in the month of July: 27 from Italy, 43 from Germany, 292 from Greece, and 42 from France.

“The central threat to Israel’s achievements in controlling the pandemic is the danger of allowing entry to mutant coronavirus variants that can be more aggressive or have a greater rate of infection, and harm the non-vaccinated population,” the Health Ministry told the committee in a statement. “There is an increased risk that those who travel to these countries will return and bring with them variants that will spread quickly in the community and not be identified until it is too late.”

Ahead of a meeting of the coronavirus cabinet on Tuesday, Prime Minister Naftali Bennett was said to have warned his coalition partners that if serious measures are not taken now, a new lockdown could be instated over the Jewish holidays in September.

“We need more restrictions in order to prevent extreme steps in the future,” the prime minister asserted.

Conviction for Guetta’s Murderer

On Tuesday, a military court convicted a Palestinian man with U.S. citizenship of murder for killing Yehuda Guetta, 19, a Jewish student in a yeshiva in Itamar.

The court “convicted the terrorist Muntasir Shalabi, based on his confession, of the crime of intentional manslaughter – equivalent to the offense of murder,” the Israel Defense Forces said.

In addition, Shalabi was convicted of “several counts of attempted intentional manslaughter, and possession of a weapon and obstruction of justice,” according to a military statement.

Shalabi, 44, was arrested by Israeli forces in May after he opened fire on passengers waiting at a bus stop at Tapuah Junction, south of Nablus, in the northern West Bank.

The attack Yehuda and wounded two of his friends.

Last month, the IDF demolished Shalabi’s house in Turmus Ayya, a village northeast of the West Bank city of Ramallah. The move was denounced by the United States, which said such demolitions “exacerbate tensions and undercut efforts to advance a negotiated two-state solution.”

Guetta’s family last month slammed the Biden administration over its criticism of the house demolition, and said it would file lawsuits in Israel and in the U.S. demanding that Shalabi’s assets be seized, including the land where his home had stood.

“This will be an unprecedented process that will teach terrorists and their handlers that there is no corner of the world where we won’t reach them, and that terror victims will continue pursuing them forever,” said Nitsana Darshan-Leitner of the Shurat HaDin

legal aid group, representing the family.

Guetta’s father, Elisha, said the family was “shocked that the U.S. is condemning the demolition of [the home of] my son’s murderer and is supporting a terrorist who arrived from the U.S. to carry out a vicious shooting terror attack against innocent Jewish students.

“It would be expected that the U.S., which has often been the victim of terrorism, would stand with terror victims rather than with their murderers,” he added.

Israel Has a State Budget – First in 3 Years

The Israeli government on Monday morning passed a state budget, for the first time since the government broke apart in late 2018. The vote followed a series of marathon talks overnight, which ended with an agreement early Monday morning.

The bill now goes to the Knesset for approval. If it is not approved by the full Knesset prior to November 4, the Knesset will automatically dissolve and Israel will hold new elections.

Finance Ministry Director General Ram Belinkov said, “Overall, all of the disagreements on the budget have been settled and we’ve reached an agreement.”

The new budget includes an extra two billion shekel ($619,717,000) for the Health Ministry, as well as plans for reducing the deficit created largely by the coronavirus pandemic. The new budget also increases the defense budget by seven billion shekel ($2.15 billion) to 58 billion shekel ($17.8 billion).

A Third Jab

Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett on Thursday announced that Israelis over age 60 are eligible to receive a third dose of the coronavirus vaccine, provided their second dose was given over five months ago.

On Friday, Bennett told the country’s HMOs that their goal should be to vaccinate 1.5 million Israelis over the coming eight days, promising to provide additional manpower and funding.

Sigal Rosenberg, CEO of the Meuhedet HMO, noted, “This is not a long operation; it will be fast and furious. We will open dedicated vaccination distribution complexes, proactively inviting the relevant populations while expanding the manpower as needed.”

Israeli President Yitzhak Herzog and his wife Michal, as well as former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his wife Sara, received the third vaccines on Friday. Bennett and his wife are both under 60 and ineligible for a third dose at this time, but Health Ministry Director General Nachman Ash did receive it.

A third dose has not yet been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, but according to Ash, “it would have been impossible to wait a few more months” for approval, given the State of Israel’s Delta outbreak.

“We already have enough vaccines and the arrival of more doses is expected in the coming weeks in order to effectively implement this third dose vaccination drive,” he said.

“The vaccine is our solution to make it out of the pandemic, so it is important that everyone who can goes and gets vaccinated,” he added, emphasizing that “we do not force people to get vaccinated, but it is important to make the vaccines accessible so that those who are able to.”

Iran Attacks Israeli Ship

Israel’s Foreign Ministry on Sunday released a statement regarding Foreign Minister Yair Lapid’s (Yesh Atid) conversation with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, discussing an Iranian attack on a Japanese-owned, Israeli-managed ship.

At the time of the Friday attack, the ship had been off the coast of Oman. Two people, a British citizen and a Romanian citizen, were killed in the attack.

“Foreign Minister Yair Lapid spoke tonight with U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken about the attack on the ship in the Gulf of Oman, joint activity against Iranian terrorism, and the formulation of a real and effective international response to the incident,” the Ministry statement read.

“During the weekend, Minister Lapid also spoke with his counterparts in Britain and Romania, to whom he expressed his condolences and discussed the threat posed by an Iran that repeatedly harms innocent civilians. Foreign Ministry staff are working in a long list of the world’s capitals to urge condemnation of the incident and arrange an international response.”

The statement stressed, “Iran has now murdered two British and Romanian civilians. It repeatedly underestimates Israel’s determination and commitment to defending itself and its interests.”

On Friday, Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz (Blue and White) and IDF Chief of Staff Aviv Kochavi held a security consultation following the attack.

Also on Friday, a senior Israeli official commented, “Iran is sowing violence and destruction in every corner of the region. Out of eagerness to attack an Israeli target, they have complicated and incriminated themselves by killing foreign civilians. The masks are coming off and it is impossible to pretend that the nature of the Iranian regime is unknown.

“Iran is not just a problem of Israel, it is a global problem, and its behavior endangers global shipping and trade. Our campaign against them will continue.”

Zodiac Maritime, the Israeli company that manages the ship attacked off the coast of Oman, confirmed earlier on Friday that two individuals on board had died due to the attack.

“Two crew members, one a Romanian citizen and the other a British citizen, died from their wounds shortly after the attack,” the company stated. “From preliminary reports, the attack was carried out by an unmanned aircraft.”

“We Became the Story”

Three Israeli filmmakers arrested last month in Nigeria while filming a documentary on the Jewish Igbo communities were released home last week.

Rudy Rochman, Andrew Noam Leibman, and David Benaym were arrested on July 9 in southeast Nigeria while filming “We Were Never Lost,” which focuses on Jewish communities in African countries.

Speaking to The Times of Israel on Sunday, Rochman said, “The goal of the documentary is to tell the stories, the struggles, and aspirations of unknown communities of Jews around the world.”

The Igbo, who live in southeastern Nigeria, number around 30 million. It is a multi-ethnic group, members of which for hundreds of years have claimed Jewish descent. At the same time, the separatist Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) movement, founded in 2012, seeks an independent Igbo state and is classed by Nigeria as a terrorist organization.

Nnamni Kanu, IPOB’s founder, has said that he credits Israel with his survival. He was arrested by Interpol