Passover Eve: Israel To Fall Under Full Curfew For First Time Since 10 Plagues
By JNS.org April 07, 2020
Share this article:
On Passover night, all Jews in Egypt were on lockdown because of the plague of the First Born. In fact, the very term Passover - meant that the plague Passed Over the Jewish households. This year too, the nation of Israel will all be in total lock-down.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Interior Minister Aryeh Deri have agreed to declare a full nationwide curfew for Passover eve, which begins at sundown on Wednesday.
Speaking to Channel 12 News, Deri explained, "We considered a curfew a few weeks ago, but we didn't want to paralyze the country. On Passover, no one works and offices are closed. Especially on seder night we don't want people moving around from one family to another. As much as it wrings our hearts, this year seder must be held with only the nuclear family."
Once the lockdown goes into effect, drivers will be stopped by police, said Deri.
"On the night of Passover no one is shopping, everyone has already bought what they need. Occupants of a car on the road on seder night will have to explain their business to the police," he said.
When asked how long the curfew would remain in place, Deri said he wasn't sure. "We are discussing that, so people will be able to plan for it," he said.
On Monday, Acting Police Commissioner Moti Cohen was slated to hold a situation assessment ahead of the police deploying to enforce the Passover curfew. In addition to checkpoints at city borders and spot checks on the highways, traffic police will be conducting patrols in unmarked cars. A source in the police said that the focus would mainly be on large family vehicles or cars carrying more than two passengers.
Earlier Sunday, Deri had warned that certain neighborhoods in Jerusalem were "in worse shape than Bnei Brak" in terms of the number of coronavirus cases. The city of Bnei Brak has been particularly hard hit by the coronavirus pandemic. The Health Ministry, he said, wants nearly all the city's haredi (ultra-Orthodox) neighborhoods put under quarantine.
Originally published at JNS.org - reposted with permission.
