Defense Minister Naftali Bennett called on Sunday to stop automatically sending Israelis returning from overseas into isolation at specially designated hotels.
"We've come to the point where we advise the National Security Council (NSC), along with almost all government ministries, to cease automatically sending all returnees from overseas into two-week isolation in hotels," said Bennett.
The Yamina leader said that the continued operation of these hotels will take a heavy toll on the mental state of those in isolation, as well as bite off a large chunk of Israel's budget.
"[Isolation in "coronavirus hotels"] may cause severe mental problems and carries astronomic costs with it. According to an estimate I've received this morning, another month of this will cost the State of Israel a quarter billion shekels a month. I think this is a mistake, this is our proposal to the NSC, and I will fight for the hard-earned money of the citizens of Israel."
I think people should be sent home for isolation instead, after giving a written declaration that they're aware that any violation of the shelter-in-place orders will have criminal repercussions, and we will have an enforcement authority that will enforce it."
"We will send to hotels only those who aren't able to self-isolate. It made sense as long as we had 100 arrivals a day, now we are approaching 400 a day and we will also reach 1,000-2,000 a day soon enough. We will end up spending all of Israel's money on putting people in hotels for nothing."