For the past month, the first thing Avi Steiner, 17, from Toms River, New Jersey, did when he woke up in the morning was to check English-language Israeli news sites on his phone. Steiner was eager to find out about any updates in Israeli policy on the entry of students with foreign citizenship to study in Israel. The tension unsettled his days for many weeks, but at the beginning of this week, it finally happened — with only a few hours’ notice, he got on a plane to Israel. 

“My suitcase had been packed for two months," he said in conversation with Al-Monitor from his quarantine location at a hotel near the Dead Sea. “I’m part of a group of several dozen students. Only on Sunday did they tell us we have a flight to Israel, and when I heard I was giddy with happiness. I was sure that it was lost. For months I didn't sleep or eat regularly because of this — but now, when I see the Dead Sea from my window, I know it was all worth it.”

On Aug. 3, after a debate that lasted several weeks, professor Ronni Gamzu, Israel’s coronavirus czar, authorized the arrival of 17,000 yeshiva students, students at religious women’s colleges, secular students and youths coming to the country with various Zionist organizations. The arriving students will immediately be placed in quarantine for 14 days, where for the first time, the State of Israel will allow a new lenient measure whereby isolation will be allowed in groups of up to six people, at institutions that have been authorized by the Ministry of Health. 

Knesset members from the secular Yisrael Beitenu party bitterly attacked the decision even before its official approval, as did its chairman Avigdor Liberman, who called the decision “a health hazard.” He continued, “In recent days we have heard that the government allowed about 16,000 yeshiva students from the United States, who are not Israeli citizens, to enter Israel before the High Holidays, without a preliminary coronavirus test. To any logical person it’s clear that this is an event that is not supervised and does not keep to the rules and constitutes a danger to public health and could lead us to an emergency situation.”