Israeli ministers told a ministerial council on Sunday that Corona measures only serve to increase vaccination rates and state control and not to reduce morbidity.
“Our problem is people who don’t get vaccinated. We need [to influence] them a bit; otherwise, we’ll never get out of this,” Israeli Health Minister Nitzan Horowitz told Interior Minister Ayelet Shaked.
Shaked had told Horowitz: “You can abolish the Green Pass for outdoor restaurants.” Horowitz and Shaked were unaware that they were being broadcast live to the nation on Channel 12, reported Jewish News Syndicatewhen he responded to the suggestion.
“Also in swimming pools, not just in restaurants. Epidemiologically that’s correct,” replied Horowitz. “The thing is, I’m telling you this, our problem is people who don’t want to be vaccinated,” Horowitz said.
Horowitz added that while the pass had no “medical justification”, he did not want to start making exceptions, “because then they will say, ‘If not swimming pools, why water parks?’” He stressed that the regulations had to be uniformly enforced to convince people of the need to take the shot.
Pressure on the doubly jabbed is likely to increase. Horowitz and Shaked were joined by Intelligence Minister Elazar Stern, who blamed the unvaccinated. “It’s annoying that they’re taking up the [hospital] beds,” he said. To which Horowitz replied: “Those in intensive care, yes.”
Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett has meanwhile warned that tolerance towards those who choose not to get vaccinated has ended, according to Channel 12.
The conversation revealed what skeptics have been saying all along – that vaccine passports are a form of control. The Interior and Health Ministers represent different political constituencies in Israel, with Shaked in the nationalist New Right Party and Horowitz chairing the far-Left Peace Now Meretz faction.
The Israeli Public Emergency Council for the Coronavirus Crisis, an independent, apolitical, and voluntary body composed of senior doctors and researchers, responded to the video, saying: “They’ve crossed every red line – it’s not a Green Pass – it’s a Red Lie. The Health Minister himself admits in the recording revealed tonight that the Green Passport has no epidemiological effect at all. It is designed to inflict psychological pressure on you to make your life difficult until you get vaccinated.
“They are restricting citizen’s freedom, harming small businesses, making the children mentally ill, and all with no medical justification. That is exactly why we petitioned the Supreme Court. These recordings cannot pass in silence.”
The Israeli Public Emergency Council for the Coronavirus Crisis concluded: “We intend to approach the Court and ask it to comment in its decision on the recordings that were revealed tonight on Channel 12 News. Stop abusing civilians. Stop destroying the economy. Immediately abolish the Green Pass restrictions.”