Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Israel News

Why Are Israelis Suing To Go To Egypt On Passover?

On the Passover holiday, Jews commemorate the exodus from Egypt. But this Passover, two Israeli Jews are suing their government to go there.

Two Israeli Jews petitioned the High Court to go to Egypt over the Passover holiday after Israeli authorities closed the Sinai crossing in an unusual step over security concerns.

On Sunday the High Court upheld the government’s decision, reported the Arutz 7 web site.

The Israeli backpackers had planned to travel through the southern Israeli port city Eilat into Sinai for a holiday trek, but were barred since Israel closed the Taba border last week after deadly attacks on Christian churches in the area by the Islamic State group.

The travel ban “violates the peace treaty with Egypt, in which it is expressly written that the two sides will allow citizens on both sides to cross,” one petitioner told Haaretz.

According to the Times of Israel, 20 Israelis signed onto the petition to be allowed to enter Sinai, a beloved vacation area for Israelis that has diminished in popularity in recent years amid security fears.

Even so, tens of thousands of Israelis were supposed to visit the area’s beaches during Passover.

Contact Naomi Zeveloff at [email protected]

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.