Visitors to the prime minister’s Facebook page, who clicked on a link about the coronavirus, received an automatic message claiming it came from Netanyahu.
“If you have friends or family members aged 60 or over who have not yet been vaccinated, you can write an answer here with your name and phone number and I can call to convince them!” the message read.
Taking action and removing the articles, Facebook said, through a spokesperson, that “in accordance with our privacy policy, we do not allow content to share or solicit people’s medical information.”
The spokesman added that Facebook “eliminated the contravention posting and temporarily suspended the Messenger bot, which shared this content, for violating these rules.”
Netanyahu’s Likud Party issued a statement in response, saying the goal “was to encourage Israelis over the age of 60 to get vaccinated to save their lives after Prime Minister Netanyahu brought vaccines to every Israeli citizen.”
The party said it was asking “everyone to get vaccinated so that we can open up the economy and be the first in the world to get out of the coronavirus.”
Netanyahu, who is facing his fourth election in two years in March, has made Israel’s world-leading vaccination program the central message of his re-election campaign.