Individual tourists to be allowed into Israel starting July 1

Vaccinated individual tourists are going to be allowed in Israel starting from July 1, Tourism Minister Orit Farkash-Hacohen announced on Thursday night. However, a Health Ministry official told The Jerusalem Post that the statement was somewhat premature and connected to the imminent change of government.

“I’m happy that the hard work of the Tourism Ministry staff, along with the Health Ministry, Foreign Affairs, and the Interior Ministry, led the interior minister to declare that the requirements for vaccinated tourists will be relaxed and there will be an expansion of the entry of individual tourists starting July 1,” Farkash-Hacohen tweeted. “The time has come for Israel to open up to tourism and to take advantage of its status as a vaccinated country for the benefit of its economy.”

A spokesperson for the minister told the Post that the decision will not require any further approval by the government and there won’t be any limit on the number of visitors allowed in.

Only vaccinated travelers – and not those who have recovered – will be allowed in. They will have to present their vaccination certificate before boarding the plane, as well as the results of their PCR test.

The questions about which vaccines are going to be accepted accept and whether tourists are going to need to undergo a serological test to prove the presence of antibodies in their blood to avoid quarantine – as it is now required to anyone who was vaccinated abroad – are still under discussion, the spokesperson added.

However, a Health Ministry official said that while it is true that this is the direction that relevant officials are working towards, Farkash-Hacohen’s announcement was premature, possibly to rush it before the new government is sworn in.

“Many details still need to be worked out and obviously the new government will have an impact on what is decided,” he said.

According to the general outline that is being studied, only visitors from selected countries are going to be allowed in, the official clarified. Health officials are working to determine which criteria – such as level of morbidity – to evaluate each country.

He also confirmed that July 1 is the goal.

Israeli borders have been closed to foreign nationals for over a year, with limited exceptions.

At the end of April, the Tourism Ministry unveiled a plan to reopen the country to foreign nationals after over a year. Starting from May 23, some selected tourist groups were supposed to be allowed in, followed by a general permission to travel to Israel in groups. Moreover, according to the plan, individual travelers were supposed to be admitted in the country from July 1, but the plan required further details to be approved.

The escalation with Gaza slightly delayed the plan’s rollout, but the first group of visitors  – Christian pilgrims from the United States – arrived on May 27.

However, the decision on whether to open up the country to all groups and then to individual tourists kept on being postponed. Health officials have repeatedly stressed that while in light of the low morbidity their goal was to cancel all coronavirus regulation within the country, maintaining tight border restrictions to avoid the risk of infected people entering Israel was very important.

On Monday, a spokesperson for the Tourism Ministry said that the pilot program to allow a limited number of tourists traveling in groups into Israel was extended until the end of June and up to 1,000 travelers could enter the country, while a decision for individual travelers would be made later in the month.

Besides for the limited number of visitors traveling in groups, and Jewish youth participating in special educational programs in Israel – such as Birthright trips and Masa programs, also foreign nationals who have a first degree relative in Israel can enter the country.

However, the procedure to receive permission to travel is quite complicated, and involves sending the local Israeli consulate or the Interior Ministry several documents including copies of IDs of both the traveler and the Israeli relative, an official document proving their relations – such as a birth certificate for parents and children – the vaccination certificate, plane tickets, travel insurance covering COVID and details of the place where they are going to spend their quarantine until the results of the serological test arrives.

For many who wish to travel to Israel – as well as for those who work in the tourist industry – is that the requirements are going to be far less burdensome, as the skies further open up.