The American Israel Education Foundation, the charitable organization affiliated with AIPAC, is rescheduling two congressional trips to Israel next month over concerns tied to COVID-19.
The House Republican freshman trip and a bipartisan delegation of members of the House Armed Services and Homeland Security Committees, originally scheduled for August, are now planned for February. These two delegations will now coincide with the Democratic freshman trip, which had already been planned for February 2022.
“AIEF has decided to reschedule to a later date two congressional trips to Israel that were slated for August. Given Israel’s increased concern over the Delta variant and the likelihood of further travel restrictions, we decided it was not possible to offer Members of Congress a comprehensive and informative program in the midst of the current challenges,” Marshall Wittmann, spokesman for AIPAC, told JNS.
“Enthusiasm for traveling to Israel remains high among these members, and we look forward to them visiting Israel with AIEF,” he said.
AIPAC recently also announced that it is going to cancel its 2022 policy conference, also due to concerns about the spread of COVID.
Israel, like many other countries, has seen rising caseloads in recent weeks as the result of the new variants spreading in the country.
