Jerusalem.
The Prime Minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu, today stopped deliveries of coronavirus vaccines that he planned to donate to allied countries after the first lots arrived in Honduras and Guatemala and after state attorney general Avijai Mandelblit called for legal clarification on the plan.
According to local media, Mandelblit requested details of Netanyahu’s initiative, which the defense minister opposed today. Beny Gantz, considering that it alone made a negative decision in the interests of the country without consulting the relevant government agencies.
National Security Council Israel has stopped all planned shipments, pending the prosecutor’s decision on whether the prime minister has the legal power to transfer vaccines purchased with Israeli public money in other countries without the approval of the Cabinet, specified the local newspaper Haaretz.
As reported today Fat, who filed complaints with the prosecutor, vaccines are a “national asset”, and the fact that Netanyahu has decided to donate part of the accumulated lot to other states is harmful, as the majority of the population in Israel he has not received a second dose yet. “
Israel leads the world in vaccination as a percentage of the vaccinated population, with more than 4.5 million with the first dose and 3.2 with the second, out of a population of about 9 million people.
Netanyahu announced on Tuesday that he would send vaccines to other countries, which according to local media are some of Israel’s main allies, which he would reward for their diplomatic support. Jewish state. Of these, in addition Honduras or Guatemala, there is Hungary or the Czech Republic.
While the boss of government seeks to make the purchase of vaccines add diplomatic points, at the same time increasing the debate on Israel’s responsibility to facilitate vaccination to The Palestinian population Gaza or the West Bank, with more NGO which insists on Israel’s obligation to provide aid as an “occupying power.”
In the gang, Israel blocked the administration of the first doses last week, and in the West Bank it has employed 5,000 doses for medical staff, of which so far only 2,000.