Eight babies born through surrogates in Georgia brought to Israel
Like Israel, Georgia has a two-week required quarantine for people arriving from abroad, and theirs is enforced by police.
By LAHAV HARKOVFrom right: Maj. Gen. (res.) Giora Eiland, Prof. Shmuel Sandler, and Prof. Efraim Inbar.(photo credit: Courtesy)
Seven Israeli couples brought home eight babies born via surrogates in Georgia, on a special flight on Saturday while the country was under lockdown due to the spread of COVID-19.The flight was a private initiative by former National Security Council chairman Giora Eiland, with support from the Israeli Embassy in Tbilisi, whose staffed convinced local authorities to allow the 14 Israelis in to the country to wait for their babies to be born and then to leave with them.Eiland, currently a senior research associate at the Institute for National Security Studies, does not have a personal connection to the matter, but had heard about the parents’ predicament on television last week. On Monday, a friend named Yochai Margalit called him and asked for help raising money for a flight for the parents and babies. They ended up raising NIS 180,000 through crowdfunding in two days.“I immediately understood the problem wasn’t just the money, it was the diplomatic coordination. It was a very sensitive and delicate matter,” he recounted.With the Israeli Embassy to Georgia organizing the diplomatic matters, Eiland pulled together a seven-member team to work out all the other logistics. They used a private plane from a company called Ayit, and coordinated with the Health Ministry to allow a pediatrician onboard with relevant medical equipment, despite the ban on doctors leaving Israel.“There were endless matters that needed to be resolved…We put together a plan and it worked better than we thought it would in all ways,” Eiland said.Like Israel, Georgia has a two-week required quarantine for people arriving from abroad, and theirs is enforced by police. The parents were concerned their babies would be born and the surrogates would not take care of the newborns, because doing so is not stipulated in their contracts.“Some of the parents were horribly stressed. To see them in Israel, in the airport, with smiles on their faces was great fun,” Eiland said.Israeli Ambassador to Georgia Ran Gidor thanked the Georgian government for its cooperation despite the lockdown in the country to fight the spread of coronavirus. The embassy is continuing to work on helping additional Israelis who are expecting their babies to be born in the coming weeks.“This operation symbolizes the deep freidnship between Georgian and Israel,” Gidor said.Foreign Minister Israel Katz said that “even in a time like this, of an international crisis, the Foreign Ministry’s staff continues to help Israelis around the world.”
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