The Israeli Medical Association called on Wednesday for a criminal investigation against anti-vaxxers for threatening health care officials who encourage vaccination.
Prof. Galia Rahav, a director of the Infectious Diseases Research Laboratory at Sheba and a member of the Health Ministry’s advisory panel, has received threatening messages.
You’re “Hitler future neighbor in hell,” one message said, with another stating: “Galia, I hope and long for a day when G-d will soon take you.” Another two members of the Health Ministry’s vaccination committee also received death threats.
The Health Ministry fiercely condemned the threats, saying: “Prof. Galia Rahav agreed to use her own private time, on a completely voluntary basis, to be part of the coronavirus advisory team. Furthermore. Prof. Rahav treats thousands of patients with infectious diseases with great professionalism and devotion and has saved the lives of thousands of people.”
“These are malicious people who allow themselves to threaten doctors who save lives,” Health Ministry Director-General Prof. Chezy Levy told Channel 13 News. “We’ll take action to address this to the fullest extent of the law.”
Dr. Sharon Alroy-Preis, the head of the Health Ministry’s Public Health division, also received threatening messages. “Soon Sharon Alroy-Pries will pay the price,” one message said.
“Slowly it turns out that we are imprisoned in a psychopathic experiment run by her and it will not end until she is released,” another message stated.
Epidemiologist Prof. Chagai Levine received phone calls comparing him to Nazi doctor Josef Mengele.
“I come from a family of Holocaust survivors and it is definitely very unpleasant when they tell me ‘you are worse than Mengele,’” Levine said. “I receive emails, WhatsApp messages and sometimes home phone calls with threats and curses. These are not just antivaxxers but groups with different agendas.”
Watch below: Two Health Ministry videos warning that fake news can kill:
(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)
Join the official YWN WhatsApp status
4 Responses
Sick evil people
In a Democratic society such as EY or the US, there is room for dissent and free choice. Anti-vaxers are free to express their perspective on public health risks and defer taking the vaccine themselves. When they cross the line and threaten others, there should be zero tolerance and action taken immediately w/o delay. Politicians and security forces in EY seem to be unable to make quick and decisive decisions when lives are at risk for fear of offending some constituency. I guess thats the reality of a dysfunctional parliamentary system where the vote of ONE fringe party MK (“The Anti-Vax Chevrah”) may be the 61st first vote needed to form a coalition.
The anti-vaxxers may not be Nazis but they do want more dead Jews. 🙁
Hitler’s nerighboring spot is occupied already by Stephen Wise. Perhasp there is another spot nearby