BAT YAM, Israel – Israel has rushed the world’s fastest Covid vaccination campaign, vaccinating nearly half of its population with at least one dose. The rapid implementation makes the country a living laboratory for setting the rules in a vaccinated society, which raises thorny questions about rights, obligations and greater well-being.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s cabinet voted this week to open shopping malls and museums to the public, subject to social distance rules and mandatory masking. For the first time in many months, gyms, cultural and sporting events, hotels and swimming pools will also reopen, but only for some.
Under a new “Green Badge” system that functions as a root and stick, from Sunday, the government will only make recreational activities accessible to people who have been fully vaccinated or recovered. Two weeks later, restaurants, meeting rooms and conferences are allowed under the rules. Customers and participants must carry a vaccination certificate with a QR code.
Israel is one of the first countries to grapple with a number of legitimate, moral and ethical issues in real time, as it seeks to balance steps towards the resumption of public life with sensitive issues such as public security, discrimination, free choice and privacy.
‘To be vaccinated is a moral duty. It is part of our mutual responsibility, “said Health Minister Yuli Edelstein. He also has a new mantra: “Whoever is not vaccinated will be left behind.”
The debate raging in Israel is also raging in other parts of the world, with plans to warn international travelers of vaccinated “green passport” holders and warnings of growing inequalities between prosperous and more vaccinated countries. less vaccinated.
The central government of Israel, which is eager to remove the country from its third national exclusion without causing a new wave of infections, has been spurred on by local initiatives. An indoor shopping mall in the working-class suburb of Bat-yam, Bat Yam, opened its doors last week to customers who could prove they had been vaccinated or recovered from Covid-19.
In Carmel, the mayor made a similar decision to open his city in the Northern Galilee region for business. His office began processing requests from employers who could verify that all of their employees had received the necessary two doses of vaccination or had recovered from the virus.
In other cities, mayors did not want to exclude vaccinated teachers from the classroom, while some hotel leaders threatened forced redundancies.
Dr. Maya Peled Raz, an expert in health law and ethics at the University of Haifa, defended some limits on personal freedoms for the greater good. Employers cannot force employees to be vaccinated, she said, but they may only be allowed to employ vaccinated workers if they cannot harm them.
“This may include damage to individual rights, but not all damage is prohibited if it is well-balanced and legal to achieve a worthy goal,” she said. “It’s your choice,” she adds to recreational activities. ‘If you are vaccinated, you can enroll. As long as you are not, we can not allow you to endanger others. ”
Four million Israelis – nearly half the population of nine million – received at least one dose of Pfizer vaccine, and more than 2.6 million received a second dose. About two million citizens aged 16 and older did not seek vaccination. The average number of new daily infections is about 4000.
Health Minister Edelstein said on Thursday that vaccination would not be mandatory in Israel. But his ministry is now proposing legislation that obliges non-vaccinated employees whose contact with the public involves testing for the virus every two days. And he is promoting a bill that would allow the ministry to identify unintroduced people with local authorities.
Local authorities and volunteers tried to lure people to vaccination centers with offers of free pizza, Arabian sweets and, in the ultra-Orthodox city of Bnei Brak, bags of cholent – a slow-cooked stew traditionally prepared for the Sabbath.
However, vaccination remains voluntary and not everyone rushes for it.
Ofek Hacohen, 34, a manager of holiday homes in Jerusalem, said he believed in a natural approach to a healthy body and insisted that the risk posed by the virus – which he calls “flu” – was exaggerated. He added that he did not trust the safety of the vaccine.
He said he did not know what he would do if legislation were introduced limiting his options.
‘But I will not be vaccinated. I will certainly participate in demonstrations. I believe I will not be alone, ‘he said, adding,’ I can survive without going to the theater, football matches or a restaurant. It’s annoying, but what can I do? ”
Concerts and restaurants are luxuries that people can give up more easily. But the questions are becoming more urgent and controversial when it comes to the rights of employers and workers.
The rights of teaching staff have been particularly scrutinized as some personal classes reopen. A quarter or more of Israel’s teachers have not sought a first dose, a situation that critics say could pose a potential danger to students under 16 who are too young to be vaccinated. Some health workers also refrained from being vaccinated.
After a number of mayors threatened to ban unvaccinated teachers from their classrooms, the deputy attorney general explained that they did not have the power to do so without new legislation.
Dr. Peled Raz said the temporary emergency law that regulates Israel’s response to the virus could be more easily amended with regard to health workers than others due to possible harm to themselves and patients, adding that it was justified.
“You want to be a nurse and will not be vaccinated?” she said. “Get vaccinated or choose another profession.”
But two rights organizations, the Israel Civil Rights Association and the Worker’s Hotline, have said they have already received complaints from other non-vaccinated employees. The groups wrote a letter to the attorney general this month demanding that he issue a clear opinion, saying that under existing legislation, an employer may not demand information from workers about their vaccination status.
“The first problem is that there is no policy,” said Gil Gan-Mor, director of the civil and social rights unit at the Israel Civil Rights Association. “If the government does not work fast enough, we see too many private initiatives.”
Finding a balance between competing rights and interests remains a debate, he says, and requires a broad discussion in parliament.
Barak Cohen, a lawyer and social activist, raised more questions in a recent Facebook post.
“To what extent is it appropriate to push and force when the decision-making process around the vaccine is hidden in the dark and confidential?” he wrote, pointing out that he did not deny the severity of the coronavirus or the efficacy of the Pfizer vaccine.
He also pointed to the low public confidence in the government and what he called drug companies “major financial importance.”
In Carmel, according to Eli Sade, the director of the mayor’s office, the town hall gave at least 20 businesses a local version of a Green Badge to put in their windows. Everyone who came in had to indicate that they had been vaccinated or had recovered from the virus. But police officers told store owners to close because they were breaking the law.
The shopping center in Bat Yam, which wanted customers to prove they had been vaccinated, soon abandoned the requirement to show a green passport at the entrance and again equipped the guards with temperature cannons.
Within the few stores that opened, they set up their own access policy. One chain followed basic social distance regulations, while another required a vaccination certificate. Sportswear and lingerie stores have a ‘pick-up service’ for customers standing in front of the door.
Haifa Zeinab, 20, who worked in a Japanese housewife and gift shop, said she did not intend to be vaccinated because an aunt was overcome by dizziness after all her doses. When she was told not to come every two days without a green passport or a negative test, she said with a shrug, “I will not come.”