Israel repeals iPad ban after two weeks of confiscations
Communications Ministry banned devices for not meeting European standards for wireless use.
By TheMarker Staff Tags: Israel newsThe ban has been lifted: The Communications Ministry announced Saturday evening that starting Sunday it will allow Apple's iPad tablet computer into the country, following two weeks of confiscations and confusion.
The order came from Communications Minister Moshe Kahlon, who apparently hadn't been appraised of the initial decision to ban the devices due to their wireless specifications.
The ministry banned importation of the devices last week, saying they did not meet European standards for wireless use of communications frequencies.
In a move to justify the earlier ban, the ministry stated personal imports would now be allowed "immediately, after technical tests were completed by the ministry's professional staff over the last week vis-a-vis Apple officials, European authorities and a well-known international laboratory."
If your iPad was confiscated by customs officials atBen-Gurion International Airport, you can now pick it up.
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Still laughing?
i'm proud of our national security and our state's tech smarts. too bad other countries are not able to keep up, even intellectually follow the strategic reasons for possibly checking something out before allowing it into a country. however, this makes me question the intelligence of people in other countries. are they really smart enough to be allotted so much of the earth's resources? they're truly dim bulbs...
They may have had confusion but at least people selling the ipads now know it works in Israel and it won't lose connection with the wireless. Rather have a little confusion and in the end u know everything is working than no confusion and when lots of people start buying the product discover they don't work properly.
A person does not know whether to laugh or cry, the country that constantly brags about technical skills, military competence and security expertise is thrown into confusion by s simple consumer device!
Network Israel did the right thing forbidding this junk ,pity it relented .
The technical staff who aren't political blocked it because the law says it has to be compatible and they didn't have a chance to test it. They tested it and now it is over.
So in the end we're allowed to have them and our government makes a complete fool of itself once again in the international arena. Presumably iDigital is now able to import and sell ipads and therefore their connection in the Ministry is no longer needed in order to block imports under the veil of some nonsense military excuse. ISRAEL, a sunny place for shady people!
But you'll have to pay rent for the time it spent in the custody of the authorities, one had of which doesn't know what the other is doing.
Is this another example of the apparent incompetence of officials who don't miss an opportunity to show off their lack of knowledge? I don't expect an answer.