5 human rights groups petition against Israeli Public Security Minister Ohana’s refusal to vaccinate prisoners
The battle over the COVID-19 vaccine in the Israel Prison Services is moving on to Israel’s Supreme Court: five human rights organizations petitioned the Supreme Court on Sunday morning, 10 January 2021, against Israeli Public Security Minister Amir Ohana’s decision not to vaccinate prisoners, contrary to the Ministry of Health’s directive. The petition was filed on behalf of Physicians for Human Rights Israel, ACRI, Adalah – The Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel, HaMoked: Center for the Defence of the Individual, and Rabbis for Human Rights by ACRI Attorney Anne Suciu and PHR Attorney Tamir Blank.
In the petition, the organizations demand that the Israel Prison Service (IPS) vaccinate the entire prisoner population according to the vaccination priority set by the Ministry of Health, with an emphasis on prisoners aged 60 and over, and those in high-risk groups. Moreover, the petition demands that the IPS prevent prioritizing the vaccination of prison staff over the prisoners.
The petition was filed after Ohana relayed to Israeli Deputy Attorney General Amit Marari that he did not intend to withdraw his directive refusing to vaccinate prisoners at this stage, and to solely vaccinate IPS staff. With this, Ohana rejected the deputy attorney general’s directive informing Ohana on Friday that his decision not to vaccinate prisoners “was given without authority, and thus cannot stand.”
The petition was accompanied by a medical opinion from the Association of Public Health Physicians from the Israeli Medical Association, which stated that “prisoners must be treated as a captive population. In the context of COVID-19, this is considered an at-risk population, both due to preexisting health issues and to the overcrowded conditions that increase the risk of infection and mortality.” According to the statement, “the State of Israel has an ethical obligation to offer the vaccines to the prisoner population.”
“According to professional sources, prisoners are an at-risk population and action must be taken to vaccinate them in parallel with the at-risk populations at large,” the petition states. According to the petitioners, despite these professional opinions, despite the clear instruction given by Israel’s Ministry of Health and authorities, and despite the availability of the vaccines and despite the legal and moral duty to protect prisoners, the IPS has yet to start vaccinating prisoners.
CLICK HERE to read the petition [Hebrew]
