Panel won’t let 6-year-old fly back with family, claiming he’s already in Israel

The controversial panel deciding which Israelis are permitted to return to the country has told a family they can fly back from Ukraine, with the exception of their 6-year-old son because the committee falsely said he was still in Israel, the Kan public broadcaster reports.

According to the report, the government’s Exceptions Committee told the two parents and one of their children that they can return, but the second child was not granted permission because the panel maintained he was already in the country.

The parents say that the child is with them in Ukraine and that they simply could not get the panel or any ministries in Israel to take responsibility for the error and correct it.

“We submitted a request for the whole family but we received an answer for only three. For the first request we did not receive a reason but with the second request, we were told the child is in Israel — they said ‘the child does not meet the criteria,’” father Michael Ivanov tells the outlet.