Journalists to Netanyahu: Change the directive or we will stay in Israel

"On behalf of all the reporters who are supposed to fly with the Prime Minister, I am informing you that as long as we cannot return with you on the Prime Minister's plane, we will not be able to register for the flight and will be absent from it. It is unreasonable to expect us, the journalists accompanying the trip, to undergo Sabbath desecration in order to arrive in Israel before Yom Kippur, or alternatively to stay on Yom Kippur in New York. What is forbidden to reporters according to the rules of protocol should apply to the entire entourage."

"In fact," it reads later, "you are dismissing from the delegation anyone who wants to stay on Yom Kippur in Israel (as the Prime Minister, his entourage, and the professionals want) and is not willing to violate Shabbat and fly during it. We look forward to finding a security solution as soon as possible that will allow us to return together with the Prime Minister - taking into account, of course, the religious writers accompanying the trip."

"The trips of prime ministers over the years have been conducted in such a way that the desecration of Shabbat has been prevented - we insist that the solution will be found this time as well. What is forbidden to reporters - is also forbidden to the prime minister and his entourage," the letter reads.

The letter is signed by the journalist Itamar Eichner, on behalf of the reporters accompanying the trip: Moriah Asraf Walberg, Michael Shemesh, Suleiman Masveda, Yanir Kozin, Lahav Kharkov, Anna Barsky, Ariel Kahana, Hodaya Charish, Tal Schneider, Lazer Berman.