Police to beef up enforcement to make sure nobody gets together for Passover

Police plan on stepping up enforcement of restrictions on movements and gatherings on the eve of Passover in order to make sure extended families do not attempt to get together for the traditional seder meal.

A police source tells Walla news that police will set up extra checkpoints on highways and hit the streets in extra large forces to make sure everyone complies.

“We won’t allow leniency,” the source says, adding that fines will be handed out.

A woman shops for matzah at a supermarket in Jerusalem on March 31, 2020. (Yossi Zamir/Flash90)

Officials have expressed worries that seemingly innocuous holiday get-togethers could lead to a major flare-up of the virus, pointing to the Purim holiday in mid-March as a major reason for current high numbers of infected people.

A picture taken on March 27, 2018, at the Ramat Gan Safari Park near Tel Aviv, shows an orangutan eating traditional matzah (unleavened bread) in the run up to the Jewish holiday of Passover. (AFP PHOTO / JACK GUEZ)

“We’re very worried people getting together on Passover eve will lead to a spike in infections,” Health Ministry legal adviser Uri Schwartz says during a press briefing.

Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan says the issue is “our biggest fear right now.”

Only members of nuclear families who live together will be allowed to celebrate the traditional retelling of the Exodus from Egypt together. Others will have to hide/find the afikomen and watch “The Ten Commandments” solo.