Update: Under diplomatic pressure, Israel has reversed course and will continue to designate the UAE as a green country.
Ynet is reporting that Israel is changing the UAE, Finland, and Uruguay from “Green Countries” to “Red Countries” and returning passengers will have to quarantine.
This will go into effect for arrivals into Israel starting on December 17th. It will last until at least December 21st, but is likely to be extended.
Israel’s ban on foreign nationals has been extended monthly since March.
This comes after Israel is set to begin a nighttime curfew in order to slow the spread of COVID-19.
The timing seems odd to me, as new COVID-19 cases in the UAE seems to be fairly stable over the past few months. Anyone have any theories?
Travel from Israel to the UAE has exploded this month, with FlyDubai quickly moving from 2 daily flights to 4 daily flights between Tel Aviv and Dubai! El Al, Arkia, and Israir also serve the route. It remains to be seen how those flights will be affected by today’s announcement.
Some 155 Israelis were detained upon arrival in Dubai yesterday as FlyDubai failed to obtain visas for them. After 4 hours of waiting and a diplomatic intervention, they were allowed to enter the UAE.
This move will effectively close the loophole for Israelis to meet with foreign nationals in Dubai in order to avoid quarantine or to spend 2 weeks in Dubai after coming from a red country before flying back to Israel in order to avoid quarantine.
Did you have plans to travel between Israel and the UAE? Will you cancel those plans?
You can discuss coronavirus and how it’s affecting your life on the dedicated COVID-19 board on DDF here.
HT: D93
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18 Comments On "[Update: UAE Will Remain Green] Israel Will Require Quarantine From The UAE, Finland, And Uruguay"
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My guess is that they wanted to impose a RED classification on the U.A.E. many weeks ago but the ongoing “peace” negotiations made that a delicate move. At this point it is a bit of a done deal…
Good theory, I was thinking along those same lines.
The Israeli reports I see are claiming the reason is not the covid rates in the country, rather the percentages of arrivals that ultimately where positive. Something like 18 cases in the last week or 2. That why they are making it red.
That will basically kill a huge part of the traffic between Israel and UAE.
is there a link to a list of green countries?
There’s this link, which doesn’t work for me:
https://www.gov.il/en/departments/dynamiccollectors/green-red-countries
thats to check a specific country. im not interested in placing all the countries on planet earth through it 1 by 1. im looking for a straight list.
woops, it is a list. thanx, and sorry for the confusion
My theory is that there have been too many Israelites taking advantage of the new relations to head to Dubai. While in theory this should not be a problem in the long run, the feeling is that it needs to be taken slow.
This is just a way to slow it down.
They’ve managed to mismanage their response and kill the economy throughout. This is just another boneheaded move by the dictators who have created Israel’s policies throughout. It’s mystifying and logic-defying.
I have a question, if someone flew to the UAE to avoid quarantine in Israel and if UAE is now a red country (with a 7 day grace period to avoid quarantine when returning to Israel from date of annoucement) would that affect the number of days quarantine that is required to be done in Israel? (Ie I flew from a red country and spent 10 days in UAE before flying to Israel to do 4 days quarantine and during those 10 days it became red, do I need to do quarantine for 14 days)
If you arrive in Israel on 12/17 or later from the UAE you need to do the full quarantine.
Too many Israelis are traveling to The UAE and returning with Covid-19 and exposing others since there are no quarantine requirements because The UAE is considered a green country. Lots of people are organizing concerts and shows there specifically for Israelis and the government wants to stop it.
My theory is that the Dubai piece is meant to remove the temptation of Israelis running to Dubai for their smachot. If corona spreads at weddings, the same thing will happen if the wedding moves to Dubai.
Ridiculous
Israeli lockdown is off
Too many Israelis planning to travel there for Chanukah and 1) worried about Iran retribution and 2) keep Israelis from traveling and increasing COVID, as cases are going up again
I would say they’re worried about an Iran attack (R”L), and this is a way of discouraging Israelis from going there.