Persons "in need of international protection or for other humanitarian reasons", however, are exempted from these restrictions on non-essential travel from third countries." — European Commission statement, March 30, 2020.

This means that people who apply for international protection cannot be turned away and that the rights of migrants and refugees to apply for asylum cannot be suspended, even in the time of coronavirus.

This policy was on display during the recent crisis on the border between Turkey and Greece, when Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan used migrants -- whom Turkey transported to the border with Greece -- as political blackmail, threatening to unleash a new migration crisis on Europe. At least 14,000 migrants were brought to the border, according to media reports.

As much as the EU remains committed to international law, it would seem that under the circumstances of a worldwide pandemic, which has forced countries to go to extremes in terms of limiting the liberties of their own citizens to fight Covid-19, it should be possible to find ways temporarily to suspend the right of third-country nationals to migrate to the EU.

Were the Supreme Court of Israel to decide that Benjamin Netanyahu is legally prohibited from forming a government in which he served as prime minister because he is under indictment, it would be usurping the role of the Knesset (which has not enacted such a prohibition) and the electorate (which gave him plurality, knowing that he was under indictment), as well as undercutting the rule of law (which presumes indicted individuals innocent until and unless convicted).

Such a ruling would throw the justices into the "political thicket" (to quote the US Supreme Court) and further politicize the manner by which justices are selected. It would be a self-inflicted wound on the independence and neutrality of the Supreme Court. Finally, it would give too much power to prosecutors and police officials to interfere with elections, by issuing indictments that might not result in convictions

This is not the time to further politicize a great Israeli institution.

The placard read: "Let Nuriye and Semih live." Just one line -- it was a simple, peaceful wish that the two teachers would not die in prison during their hunger strike. The governor's officials and law enforcement authorities acted immediately. From security cameras, they identified the persons who displayed the placard and launched a criminal probe against them on charges of "supporting a terror organization"

This is a compilation of shame for Turkey. Bölek and other members of Grup Yorum have never been charged with engaging in any terrorist activity. They were prosecuted for allegedly sympathizing with a terrorist organization with their songs. With their songs, not guns or bombs.

Those in the free world do not have to care what ideology Grup Yorum adopted; what they should be aware of is the level of religious zealotry and overbearing governmental control that has been reached in a presumably "Western," NATO-member country.