Rabbi Doron Perez, Chief Executive of World Mizrachi, originally from South Africa and now an Israeli citizen, commented Friday on the lifting of Israel's travel ban Thursday night.

"For so long, so many Jews from around the world, for over two years, have not been able to come to Israel. People in general and Jews in particular. The fact that the skies have opened is a tremendous and powerful message- that citizens of Israel are important to this country but so are Jews from around the world. This decision I think came as a result of the workings of many individuals and organizations which we, World Mizrachi, have been privileged to be a part of only recently.

"We had 300 community leaders, rabbis from all around the world, 28 countries, signing a petition not wanting to pressurize the government to do anything which compromises the civilians but to highlight to the decision-makers how critical it is to hear the voices of those who have been so distant from Israel."

"We are privileged to have played our small part in this critical historic decision. I can say without any fear of contradiction that in almost every single country where we have messengers the message was 'we feel forlorn, we feel abandoned'. If Israel was at war many people would get on planes and go and fight and here for over two years we simply haven't been able to visit our homeland. I can tell you now, country after country, the messages being received today is of people feeling heard and being able to come home has been very very powerful."