Gantz: We won’t agree to extend government’s emergency virus powers

11 October 2020, 8:01 pm

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Defense Minister Benny Gantz says his Blue and White party will insist that small businesses that are not customer-facing be allowed to open this week, and that it will not approve the extension of the government’s emergency powers when they expire Wednesday, which would allow the mass protests against Prime Minister Netanyahu to resume.

“All this on the condition that the morbidity trends continue to decline,” he says in a video statement.

While welcoming the decline in new coronavirus cases, Gantz acknowledges the “high price” paid by Israelis during the current coronavirus lockdown, which imposed sweeping restrictions on business, gatherings, movement, and the education system.