AG pans Ohana at High Court over withholding of vaccines from prisoners

Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit has told the High Court of Justice that Public Security Minister Amir Ohana prevented prisoners from being vaccinated “without authority and against the requirements of the law.”

Vaccination of prisoners has now begun, but had been delayed for some time, due to Ohana’s directive not to vaccinate prisoners before larger sectors of the general population were inoculated. Ohana said the policy was designed to prevent security prisoners from receiving the vaccination before all other Israelis have.

Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit speaks at an event at Bar Ilan University, March 4, 2020. (Flash90)

He initially resisted calls from both Mandelblit and Health Minister Yuli Edelstein to stop blocking the vaccinations, but eventually backed down.

Though the point is now somewhat moot, Mandelblit filed his position with the High Court anyway, saying it was important to hash it out, “in case the minister decides to withhold other rights from prisoners, for reasons that are his own… in contravention of the instructions of the attorney general.”