Yuli Edelstein attends party hours after declaring coronavirus regulations
Organizers claimed that 48 people had attended the celebration.
By TAMAR URIEL-BEERIMinister of Health Yuli Edelstein speaks during a press conference about the coronavirus COVID-19, at the Health Ministry in Jerusalem on July 6, 2020.(photo credit: OLIVIER FITOUSSI/FLASH90)
Health Minister Yuli Edelstein attended his wife's birthday party mere hours after announcing the new coronavirus guidelines last Thursday, according to The Jerusalem Post's the sister publication Maariv."This is cheap gossip that has no connection to reality," the Health Ministry retaliated after criticism came towards Edelstein for attending the party. "All regulations and guidelines were fulfilled as they were. This is a miserable attempt to damage public confidence in the health system."Edelstein had held a press conference where he had announced the guidelines, and from there, he drove straight to the party in a private house located in Herzliya. The rules had technically not gone into effect as they were only effective from the following day and on. Kan 11 presented the issue as a moral issue rather than a legal one.Organizers claimed that 48 people had attended the celebration."Are you planning on cancelling my birthday?" Edelstein's wife, Irena Nevzelin, said in response when asked if it would not have been better to cancel the party. "I sent an email to everyone. If people follow all of the conditions that were said – masks, fever check, no one is part of a risk group, and I do it outside and I put everyone separated... so I decided to do it anyway."Attendees were required to sign a non-disclosure agreement and maintain confidentiality regarding the party. "I asked everyone to see before they came that no one has symptoms, and unfortunately I should have taken some people who said they did not feel well down, I unequivocally told them not to come."But at the end of the day I decided that we cannot know when the coronavirus will end, and I want to have the opportunity to see my friends, so I decided not to cancel," Nevzelin admitted.TheJerusalem Post's sister publication Maariv contributed to this report.
