Lapid, Liberman slam formation of ministerial team to weigh Uman flights

Several opposition lawmakers criticize Prime Minister Netanyahu’s decision to appoint a ministerial team to look into allowing Israelis to fly to Uman for Rosh Hashanah.

Ukraine has banned foreign nationals from entering the country in September, preventing pilgrims from reaching Uman, and coronavirus czar Ronni Gamzu has called for flights there to be halted, angering Netanyahu’s ultra-Orthodox political allies.

“Netanyau again proves that more than he cares about Israeli citizens and working to defeat the coronavirus, he cares about the ultra-Orthodox parties and acts only out of coalition interests,” MK Avigdor Liberman, head of the right-wing secularist Yisrael Beytenu party, writes on Twitter.

Opposition Leader Yair Lapid, another critic of the ultra-Orthodox partners, also slams the move.

“There’s no team for a team of ministers for the issue of traveling to Uman… only a normal government is needed that will make a decision according to the recommendations of professional officials and face the consequences,” tweets Lapid, who heads the Yesh Atid party.

He adds: “This isn’t political, [you] bunch of cowards, it’s health.”