Israel has frozen the distribution of surplus vaccines against the coronavirus to allied states in particular, the justice ministry said Thursday, stressing that the competent authorities should examine whether such a step was part of the prerogatives of the prime minister.
On Tuesday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced the shipment of a “limited amount” of unused vaccines to the Palestinians and to several countries, two of which have announced the strengthening of their diplomatic presence in Jerusalem.
Thursday evening, the Ministry of Justice indicated that following requests from the population, “the attorney general was checking whether vaccines had indeed been transferred abroad without authority”.
The ministry said in a statement that National Security Advisor Meir Ben-Shabbat had asked the attorney general for legal advice on the decision to donate the vaccines.
According to the Ministry of Justice, Mr. Ben-Shabbat informed the attorney general that an “order had been issued for the freezing of all activity on the subject”.
An official in Mr. Netanyahu’s office confirmed that Mr. Ben-Shabbat had “requested legal advice from the attorney general on the matter”, suggesting that the process had been frozen. This “despite the fact that no dose of vaccine is missing from Israeli citizens and that the amount it was planned to give to foreign countries is symbolic and gives a good image of Israel in the world,” the said. source on condition of anonymity.
Israel has already sent thousands of doses to the occupied West Bank for PA health workers, a decision approved by the ministerial security committee and the attorney general.
Earlier Thursday, Defense Minister Benny Gantz called for a freeze on donations of vaccines to foreign countries.
– Vaccine diplomacy –
In a letter to Netanyahu, he points out that while the decision to donate vaccines to the neighboring Palestinian Authority follows “due process” and Israel’s medical needs, “the provision of vaccines to other countries had never been approached by the dedicated bodies “.
Benny Gantz, who like Netanyahu is campaigning for the March elections, said the issue should first be discussed by the ministerial security committee, saying the measure was announced without consultation and was thus “contrary to the law”.
Honduras, which announced the move of its embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem last year, was on the recipient list, according to several sources.
The Czech Republic, which plans to open a diplomatic office in Jerusalem next month, said Tuesday it had already received 5,000 doses of the Moderna vaccine from the Jewish state. Hungary and Guatemala were also due to receive vaccines.
Israel has administered the two recommended injections of the Pfizer / BioNTech vaccine to more than 3.2 million people, more than a third of its population.
The Jewish state launched a large and rapid vaccination campaign on December 19 after a deal with Pfizer allowed Israel to quickly obtain millions of doses in exchange for biomedical data on the effect of the vaccine.
On Wednesday, Netanyahu reiterated that the vaccine donations were for “symbolic amounts” of surplus and “would not come at the expense of vaccinating” Israelis, but carried diplomatic weight.
Most countries do not recognize Jerusalem as the capital of the Hebrew state, with the UN believing that its status should be agreed between Israelis and Palestinians.
But the prime minister, who describes Jerusalem as the “indivisible capital” of the Hebrew state, applauds the nations that conduct diplomacy with Israel from the disputed city.
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Israel has frozen the distribution of surplus coronavirus vaccines to allied states in particular, the Justice Ministry said Thursday, stressing that the competent authorities should examine whether such a step was part of the prerogatives of the prime minister. Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced the shipment of a “limited quantity” of non-…
