People in the tourism industry block the road to Ben Gurion Airport: "Lieberman - you will replace a profession"

Travel agents, guides and people from the inbound tourism industry are holding a demonstration at Ben Gurion Airport, demanding compensation payments and protesting the Finance Minister's statement that "they must change professions."

The demonstrators blocked the road to Terminal 3 and created a large traffic jam at the site.

"They take our oxygen, so please give compensation"

Two Frumkin

13/12/2021

Monday, 13 December 2021, 13:10 Updated: 13:11

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In the video: Demonstration of incoming tourism workers at Ben Gurion Airport (Photo: Shani Frumkin, Editing: Aviad Ballali)

The incoming tourism industry is holding a demonstration at Ben Gurion Airport today (Monday), demanding compensation from the state, following the government's decisions to ban tourists from entering Israel, and Finance Minister Avigdor Lieberman saying that guides and travel agents should "look for a new profession." The road to Terminal 3 and created a large traffic jam of passengers making their way to the area of ​​departing

flights.Yoav, a guide and organizer of the demonstration said that Lieberman's statement yesterday "was pathetic.

"Lieberman does not understand tourism, an industry that contains 200,000 people in Israel: shop assistants, tour guides, bus drivers, restaurateurs - restaurants we all know in Israel - do not survive because Israelis come on weekends, but what happens in the middle of the week?"

Yoav sharply criticizes the government for not paying more compensation to workers in the industry: "I am in a huge crisis, I have two children, the bank told me on Sunday - last loan sir. I have a profession, I want to work in it and I can work in it - but the government decided "That it closes, you decide that you close Naftali Bennett - pay me for it. Pay compensation to everyone and the inbound tourism forgot."

Ariel, another guide, added: "They are taking our oxygen, so please give us compensation."

More on Walla!

Lieberman: "Travel agents - change professions", hotel workers angry: "illegitimate"

To the full article

Protest of the tourism industry at Ben Gurion Airport, today (Photo: Walla !, Shani Frumkin)

Mordechai, owner of a gallery in Safed: "We went out to demonstrate because we are being ignored, especially Finance Minister Lieberman and after the harsh words he said yesterday that 'everyone should go look for another profession', so I hope it will affect us all to come and protest."

He added that "we are feeling one hundred percent decline in tourism, we are working on inbound tourism, not on tourism of Israelis. Everything is closed with us, a street like Tisha B'Av."

The damage they cause far exceeds the potential for damage that there may be from some new variant, "added Shimon, another guide." The fact is that all Israelis go where they want, the whole world is open and only here do these closures. "

Tova and Eliezer, residents of Givat Shmuel fly Today to Bahrain, they had to get out in the middle of the road from the vehicle that drove them, and walk to the terminal on foot with their luggage: “Shocked by the situation here, the Wise said it would take us 25 minutes to get there and here we are stuck here. We did not know there would be a demonstration here,The policeman says there is no point in waiting for us to walk. "

A Kfar Saba couple flying today with their two young children were also forced to get out of the vehicle and walk to the terminal on foot with their luggage: "We did not know there would be a demonstration here, a real pleasure. Nothing like this has happened to us since we crossed the Albanian border."

Protest of the incoming tourism industry at Ben Gurion Airport, December 13, 2021 (Photo: Flash 90, Avshalom Sasson)

Alice and Reggie, a veteran guide: "I may not be young anymore, but there are people here who are new mentors, have taken out loans and mortgages and it has ruined their lives - their whole future is unclear. People are tired, people are left with no money, young people with Families. "

Gary, a guide, explains that many tourists were expected to arrive towards Christmas: "They want to come, it's holy and Jerusalem. The desire to come here will never stop. So not only did I get invitations for December which have now been canceled, but also the following months "The damage is huge."

Gary also criticizes the fact that cinemas are open while Ben Gurion Airport is closed to foreign tourists: “Cinema is much more dangerous than a tourist group, I sit in a cinema with unvaccinated people.

The tourists who arrive are fully vaccinated.

I'm here for them to open Ben Gurion Airport.

Inbound tourism industry protest, today (Photo: Flash 90, Avshalom Sasson)

"Moreshet Derech - The Guides Association in Israel", announced the demonstration earlier and attacked on social media: "Basic without compensation and without livelihood. On Tuesday, the chairman of the constitution committee, MK Gilad Karib, announced that he would not be able to continue supporting the closure of the sky without compensation for small businesses in the inbound tourism industry. The Ministry of Finance ignores the economic disaster."

"Supervised inbound tourism has been shown not to hurt the fight in Corona. In contrast, the human damage to the inbound tourism industry leaves tens of thousands of families broken and hungry. "While the prime minister, who has promised a return to life and livelihood alongside Corona, is trying to fight Omicron, he has forgotten that the virus does not differentiate between tourists who are not allowed to enter citizens who fly unhindered.

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