Ohana: Prisoners won’t be vaccinated ‘without my permission’
PA to demand that Palestinian or foreign doctors supervise the vaccination of the prisoners.
By KHALED ABU TOAMEHIsraeli Public Security Minister Amir Ohana and Agriculture Minister Alon Schuster (not seen) at the Rafcor Plant, in Rosh Pina, Northern Israel, which has recently suffered from a number of acts of agricultural terrorism, harassment and arson. November 10, 2020.(photo credit: DAVID COHEN/FLASH 90)
Public Security Minister Amir Ohana has instructed that prisoners should not receive COVID-19 vaccines without his permission before all Israel Prison Service (IPS) staff have been inoculated, according to a letter he wrote last week.A statement by the director-general of the Ministry of Public Security said that Ohana had sent a letter on December 24 to the head of the IPS informing him that “at this stage, the minister directs that the vaccination of the Israel Prison Service staff be completed and that vaccination of prisoners should not start until permission is received and that it must be in accordance with the progress of vaccinations among the general public.”The letter, apparently, did not specify whether the minister was referring to all prisoners or to Palestinian inmates.On Saturday, Qadri Abu Baker, Director of the Palestinian Authority Commission for Prisoners and Ex-Prisoners, claimed that Israel will start giving the vaccine to Palestinian security prisoners in the next few days.Abu Baker told the PA’s official news agency, Wafa, that Israel has informed the prisoners that they will be vaccinated against coronavirus in the next few days. The vaccination of the inmates is not compulsory, Abu Baker said, adding that some prisoners have expressed desire to receive the vaccine.Abu Baker said that the PA would demand that Palestinian or foreign doctors supervise the vaccination of the prisoners.
