Tourists in Jerusalem. Photo: SHUTTERSTOCK Tourists stuck as flight plans stall.
"We had flight tickets for early this week, and since then, we're trying to understand how we're supposed to get out of here. It's clear to us that the situation is chaotic, and the war doesn't allow things to be organized, but how can it be that no one takes responsibility for foreign citizens stuck here?"
These are the words of R., a tourist from the United States who arrived in the country about a week and a half ago and has since been stuck in Tel Aviv. Despite his Airbnb apartment suffering damage from a missile blast, he is eager to leave the country but is without answers.
During a press conference held by Transportation Minister Miri Regev two days ago, she announced that "tourists can leave Israel through the Ministry of Tourism and the Ministry of Diaspora Affairs, as well as diplomats and Birthright groups - we'll get them out by sea or air."
Indeed, 1,500 Birthright participants were evacuated via a Mano Shipping vessel to Cyprus, but what about the more than 30,000 other tourists and foreign passport holders stranded in Israel?
The Ministry of Tourism published a link yesterday where tens of thousands registered, hoping to board a flight. PassportNews learned that the list remains at the Ministry of Tourism offices, but currently, there is no one to pass it on to. The National Emergency Authority (NEA) is supposed to link the list with available flights, yet there's no operative step to advance the tourists toward flights or to evacuate them from Israel with the rescue flights arriving here empty from Europe.
"No one takes responsibility, no one deals with the plan, it's more than 30,000 people without a response, who are entitled to leave Israel (unlike Israelis) but are trapped here," says a source familiar with the details to PassportNews, summarizing simply: "They are tourists, not Israelis that need to be returned to the country, so no one cares about them."
What about the airlines? Sources reveal that no plan for flying out tourists has been presented, and currently, the need to address their flights is up in the air, not even on the tables of discussions that focus solely on evacuating Israelis.
Of course, it's crucial to note that currently, evacuating passengers from Israel is a problematic mission. Planes land in the country, quickly disembark passengers, and stay as little time as possible on the ground, taking off empty and returning to their next destination, from where they bring the next Israelis in line to Israel.
From the outset, it was clear that boarding passengers on these flights is problematic, and a full boarding process is out of the question. Still, loading a few passengers on each flight—"better than nothing"—is theoretically possible, but it's simply not being done.
Now, despite promises, declarations, forms, and good intentions, tens of thousands of tourists still find themselves stranded in the country with no solution in sight, and it seems no one really cares.