By: Gil Tanenbaum
The Israeli Cabinet approved on Sunday the use of cellphone monitoring by the Israeli Security Agency (ISA) to keep track of anyone in the country who has tested positive for the Omicron strain of the Coronavirus. Such tracking has met with controversy and public resistance in the past.
The move comes after at least 2 confirmed cases of the Omicron Covid variant have been found in Israel. The government has already re-imposed an obligatory 3 day home quarantine for Israelis returning from abroad.
This decision is of limited duration and will be re-evaluated on a daily basis. In the event of a widespread outbreak of morbidity, the use of ISA cellphone monitoring will be halted.
Prime Minister Naftali Bennett personally signed the official emergency regulations on the matter.
The monitoring of people’s mobile phones is intended to ensure that people who have tested positive observe the home quarantine period required by law.
The policy, however, has only been approved for 4 days and will be in effect only until midnight on Thursday, 2 December 2021, at midnight. During this time a new law will be promoted to authorize the monitoring for a longer period.
The government emphasized that the monitoring is restricted to verified cases of the new strain alone. It states that there will be no widespread and “sweeping use for all verified cases” as was done in previous waves of morbidity.
The ISA will not be involved in enforcing the quarantine rules.
The ISA has defined the restraints and restrictions on the use of the monitoring in coordination with the Attorney General and the political echelon.
At the Cabinet meeting Sunday evening Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said that he recognizes the difficulty of living under continued Covid regulations. “I understand that everyone is tired of life in the shadow of the coronavirus,” he said. “I hear what people are saying to me: ‘We have just emerged from the Delta strain and now a new strain has arrived.’ It is not easy but it is reality.”
Bennett explained that the government’s mission, in his view, is to facilitate routine life as much as possible. To this end, he said, they are assessing the situation anew, and are estimating the “magnitude and type of threat on a daily basis, and adapting the steps and restrictions accordingly.”
“Now we need to tighten the borders in order to keep the country open within,” said Bennett. “I understand that perhaps it might be necessary to change the holiday destination and go into quarantine upon returning; this is also happening in my family.”
Bennett went on to say that it was not easy for the government to once again close the country to foreign tourists. A new two-week ban on foreigners entering Israel – except under special circumstances – was implemented on Sunday. The Prime Minister also took the opportunity to once again call on all Israelis who have not yet done so to go out and get vaccinated.
He said that this includes people who have yet to get the third booster shot or who were once infected with Covid and because of this chose not to be vaccinated. People who have been infected and recovered from the Coronavirus are still able to be infected and become sick another time.
(TPS)
