An Israel Hayom inquiry has revealed that recent reports – whereby some 90% of the approvals granted by the Exceptions Committee to Israelis seeking to return home from abroad have been allocated to ultra-Orthodox citizens – are baseless.
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A senior official privy to the actual figures, who is not a government employee it should be noted, told Israel Hayom that only around one-half of the approvals granted by the Exceptions Committee have been given to Haredim.
Although 50% is still a high figure, it is nowhere near the reported 90%. More importantly, it is consistent with the passenger profile of these flights prior to the pandemic.
It's also worth noting that precise figures are impossible to obtain because passengers on these emergency flights are not categorized as "Haredi" or "secular."
As a reminder, after Israel closed its skies on January 24, the Exceptions Committee was formed to review applications for arrival in Israel for humanitarian and special reasons. The committee is currently headed by Transportation Minister Miri Regev and comprises officials from the Interior, Foreign Affairs, Health, Transportation, Diaspora, and Immigration Absorption ministries. It has received tens of thousands of requests in recent weeks. Haredim comprise a very high percentage of those requests, some of which were approved and many others rejected.
At the same time, the fact that thousands of Israelis stuck abroad have been denied approval without receiving an explanation has garnered considerable criticism.
"Around half of the passengers who have flown to Israel from New York recently are Haredim. This isn't much different than the numbers we are used to seeing on this line in regular (non-pandemic] times. The New York line is used by many Haredim, even when things are normal, because of the very large Haredi community there. It certainly is not 90% and isn't even close to that number; it's in the range of 50% of the passengers. There are a lot of secular passengers, secular families, unequivocally," the official told Israel Hayom.
"The members of the Exceptions Committee have no idea who is asking to return to Israel, what they look like, whether they are Haredi, secular, or anything else. It's true we are subject to external pressure on occasion, but this is not a widespread phenomenon; it's specific and certainly not in the range of thousands [of requests]. This happens from time to time in the Haredi sector and happens in other sectors as well. We really aren't affected by it and our decisions are made on a strictly professional basis," an official with the Exceptions Committee told Israel Hayom.
Another official, in the Israeli aviation industry, told Israel Hayom: "Some 40% of the passengers on the rescue flights are Haredim, but this isn't because of anything other than the fact that many of them hold dual passports and regardless of the coronavirus live in Israel and New York or London."
Former Transportation Minister and Chairman of the Religious Zionist party Bezalel Smotrich responded to the reports in the Israeli press this weekend, calling them a "part of the libelous campaign against the Right and the nationalist camp, which naturally includes the Haredim. This campaign is based on demonizing Haredim and establishing the claim that the Right is kowtowing to them. It is a consistent method of the Left to stoke divisions among the different populations in Israel for political gain."
Regev, for her part, said on Sunday that "We will soon cancel the Exceptions Committee and open the skies to allow Israelis to return and vote in the [March 23] election."
Also Sunday, a Health Ministry representative told reporters: "As part of returning Israelis home, we will also allow those who were vaccinated abroad to enter."
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