Well, dear reader, so much has happened since last week that I hardly know where to start. If you follow the news in Israel you probably already know the bottom line, but, even if you do, please accompany me down the highways and byways of my idiosyncratic path to that point where we feel we can leave our worries on the doorstep as we plan to direct our feet to the less sunny side of the Mediterranean. (Catchy lyric, no? I think there might be a song in that.)

I left you last week in limbo. Portugal had announced that it was banning Israelis from entering the country, but had not (yet?) issued any guidelines about possible exceptions or appeal processes. We were desperately trying to find reliable information. Let me now bring you up to date.

Last Tuesday, Bernice stumbled, online, across a statement from the Israeli Embassy in Lisbon, simply restating the Portuguese Government’s bald official statement. However, this site included the Embassy’s email address. She suggested that I write to the Embassy and ask whether they knew anything more. I agreed that it couldn’t do any harm, and was better than stewing quietly and doing nothing, and so, more in hope than expectation, I dashed off the following email at 3:42PM (1:42 in Portugal):

Dear SIr/Madam

I understand that Portugal has banned entry to Portugal of all Israelis, other than for  Humanitarian Reasons and Essential Needs.

My wife and I have dual Israeli and British nationality and are resident in Israel. We are booked to fly from Tel Aviv to Lisbon on October 4, to visit for a month our son, his wife and our grandson, who live in Portugal as foreign residents and landowners. My wife and I own a house in Portugal.

We are unable to find any information on Portuguese Government websites about the ban, and, specifically, about qualifying as essential visitors. Would our trip constitute family reunification?

Can you advise me whether there is any way we can find answers to these questions?

I immediately received an automatic reply, acknowledging receipt, and assuring me that I would receive a reply shortly (Yeah! Sure!)

Then, at 3:48 (6 minutes after I sent my email – let me say that again: SIX MINUTES AFTER I SENT MY EMAIL), I received the following reply:

Dear David,

I enclose the wording of the announcement for you.  

If you want to apply for family reunification, please attach:  
   *Passport photos  
   *Flight ticket  
   *Vaccine certificate  

We will try to help.  

Regards,  

Consular Section – Lisbon.

When I had recovered sufficiently to tell Bernice the amazing news, I plunged myself into the welcome busy work of digging out and scanning documents. I also contacted Micha’el, and asked him for proof of residency in Portugal, and some proof of his change of name. (When Tslil and Micha’el married, they took the new surname Orlev.)

Bernice eventually managed to locate his birth certificate. Within a few minutes, Micha’el sent his NIF certificate (the equivalent of a certificate issuing a social security number), his Portuguese driving licence, his Israeli ID card, and the Israeli Population Authority certificate of name change.

With the adrenaline now pumping fiercely, I sent all of our requested documentation (but not Micha’el’s), with the following covering email, an hour and six minutes after receiving the consulate’s reply:

Thanks so much for the speed of the response!  

At your request, attached:  

   * Photographs of 2 passports
   * 2 flight tickets (E-TICKET)
   * 2 vaccination certificates
I also have photographs of our son Michael’s documents: ID, NIF, Portuguese driver’s license, change of name. They are not attached.  

Thank you and [since this was now about 25 hours before Yom Kippur] Gmar Hatima Tova

So, Bernice and I went into Yom Kippur struggling to manage our expectations. We knew that we had to be realistic. With Yom Kippur and Sukkot, there would probably be very few working days before we were due to fly (which was now only two-and-a-half weeks away) when the Consulate was working. In addition, even with the help of the Consulate, there was absolutely no reason why the Portuguese Government should be co-operatively expeditious.

Then, on Friday, at 1:34PM, another email arrived from the Consulate:

Dear David  

Attached is a letter requesting entry to Portugal.  

We would like to emphasize that the Embassy cannot take responsibility for the entry itself, and that the discretion to authorise entry or not rests with the authorities in Portugal.  

Regards,  

Tal  

Consular Section

This was amazing progress. In one bold stroke, the Consulate had given us not only the identity of a real human being (bless you, Tal), but also the following letter (and a similar one covering Bernice).

It may be that some of, you, like me, can remember receiving your first British passport, turning to the inside cover, and reading the glorious copperplate inscription:

Her Britannic Majesty’s
Secretary of State
Requests and requires in the
Name of Her Majesty
all those whom it may concern
to allow the bearer to pass freely…

I don’t know about you, but, my goodness, it made me feel very special that my free passage was being required in the name of Her Majesty.

While considerably more ‘chummy’ (‘I would much appreciate your cooperation’) and less ‘gunboat-threatening’ than the passport (‘requests and requires’), this letter nevertheless gave me the feeling that, just like Her Majesty, the State of Israel has my back.

I was also rather impressed that, on the basis, presumably, of the warmth of both my expression of gratitude for the alacrity of Tal’s response, and my greetings for a positive outcome to Yom Kippur, the Consul felt that he (or, indeed, she) was a good enough judge of character to take my word for it that we have a son who is resident in Portugal.

And so, as we entered Shabbat, Bernice and I were, in discussion with each other, managing our expectations by kicking the can down the road. ‘Even if our claim is approved, the approval is never going to come through in time.’ ‘The greatest likelihood is that we will be able to go some time in November, probably when numbers in Israel have come down and Portugal aligns itself with the emerging EU countries’ position of accepting fully vaccinated or recovered Israelis.’

And then, as I came in from davening at the end of Shabbat, Bernice showed me the message Micha’el had sent – a screenshot from facebook:

Portugal adopts EU decision – Recognize Israeli vaccine certificate starting tomorrow.
Following the report of the EU decision, the Portuguese government approved by government order the recognition of the Israeli vaccine certificate. This will take effect from 18.9 and will apply as of this moment until 30.9 (probably extended thereafter)

This was followed by fuzzy screenshots of 5 pages from the Portuguese Government website.

At this point, Bernice was failing to suppress her inner Piglet’s enthusiasm, while I was channeling my inner Eeyore* (which, if I remember rightly, includes the cochlea, the vestibule and…I forget the third part). The five pages (in Portuguese) were tantalisingly almost legible. I could make out a list of countries, which I thought I recognised, from previous viewings of this page, as countries from which Portugal was accepting visitors. However, Israel was not on this list.

I read the announcement again, and wondered aloud whether it meant only that Portugal was still banning Israelis, but, when it decided to let them in, it would recognise the Israeli vaccination.

Briefly checking on Israeli news websites was enough to convince even Eeyore that, indeed (as I hinted two weeks ago) our superpowers have enabled us to leap mountains of paperwork at a single bound (or, perhaps, that a gentle and companionable hint from the Israeli Consul was all that was needed to nudge the Portuguese Government into line with the EU).

Either way, the skies are open and our trip is on, leaving on 4 October. Wait a minute! That’s two weeks tomorrow!. You can’t imagine what we still have to do before then! And sukkot occupies one of those two weeks (which is why you are seeing this on Monday morning, and not Tuesday morning).

Never mind. I’m sure we’ll manage to sort everything out, and just this morning I received a message. We ordered, for our trip, Sonovia masks (that claim to neutralize over 99% of bacteria and viruses). They were due to arrive on 27 September, but now I am told that they are arriving today. Another item from the list that we should be able to tick off.

Of course, while we are running around here, life in Portugal proceeds at a more leisurely pace. I personally can’t wait to grab some of that!

*See my post of 7 July 2020: Could Be Worse. Not Sure How, but it Could Be.