Following the fall of the government's proposal to open hotels in Eilat and the Dead Sea, 37 MKs supported a similar wording • MK Ginzburg: "Unimaginable unemployment rates"
Royal Beach Hotel in Eilat in the shadow of the Corona
Photography:
Yehuda Ben Yethach - Archive
The Knesset plenum this evening (Tuesday) approved the private member's bill "Tourism Islands", which is worded in the same way as the government proposal submitted yesterday by Health Minister Yuli Edelstein.
The proposal passed the first reading this evening, with the support of 37 MKs and no opponents.
It will be returned to the Constitution Committee for preparation for a second and third reading.
Minister Edelstein withdrew the proposal during the vote in the Knesset plenum, after failing to persuade Knesset members to support a reservation that would prevent recognition of additional councils as such "islands."
Following the move, the merger of the government bill with the private member's bills that were submitted was canceled - so the private proposal was put to a vote on first reading.
The bill has special powers to deal with the new corona virus (Temporary Order) (Amendment No. 5) (Special Tourism Area), 5720-2020 gives the government the authority to declare tourist islands in Eilat, Ein Bokek and any other area that meets the criteria specified in the law, such as Conduct immediate tests and ability to monitor incoming.
According to the wording of the proposal, the government should consider holding events and opening sports facilities, playgrounds, beaches, parks in the public space, as well as running businesses including receiving an audience and facilitating their gathering.
It should be noted that the government wording does not require this.
"The direct meaning of the restriction that prohibits Israeli residents from reaching the city of Eilat is the unemployment of about 22,000 residents, which constitutes a rate of about 80%," the proposal said.
"The economic and social damage to the city may be irreversible, if no solution is found to allow the tourist activity in the city in a safe and long-lasting manner."
The initiator of the proposal, MK Eitan Ginzburg: "Unfortunately, there has been a case that is not only unfortunate but is a real punishment for the residents of Eilat and in fact for all citizens of Israel.
More than 70,000 residents from the Eilat area and the Dead Sea, whose economy is almost entirely based on tourism, who suffer from inconceivable unemployment rates - have become hostages in an unnecessary political battle that we should not have reached in the first place.
"I do not want to start looking for culprits, but we must all the elements in the Knesset, the government, the Constitution Committee, the Ministry of Health, reach an equal valley. It is clear to everyone that I would have preferred my original bill to pass, but at the same time we live in a world of compromises. "At the moment, in this battle between all the elements, the citizens of Israel, and especially the residents of Eilat and the Dead Sea, are losing."