PM backs top health official attacked anonymously for acting ‘like she’s crazy’

Prime Minister Naftali Bennett comes to the defense of a senior Health Ministry official after Israeli television quoted what it described as unnamed sources in the high-level coronavirus cabinet lashing out at her.

“Dr. Sharon Alroy-Preis is a devoted and professional public servant who works day and night for the health of Israeli citizens and the personal attack her is inappropriate and unacceptable,” Bennett tweets.

He adds that “there is full backing for her actions,” citing Alroy-Preis’s role as a leading official in the government’s pandemic response.

Health Minister Nitzman Horowitz also tweets his support of Alroy-Preis, who heads the ministry’s department of public health, saying she has his full support and the backing of the ministry.

The statements of support came after the sources claimed to Channel 13 news that Alroy-Preis “acts like she’s crazy. She’s always screaming and when she’s asked to provide figures, she stutters and is evasive. There is no data behind this hysteria.”

The network made a point of noting the remarks came after the Health Ministry rejected Education Minister Yifat Shasha-Biton’s plan to shorten quarantine for students to 48 hours with a negative test when the school year starts.

Channel 12 news, meanwhile, quotes unnamed government ministers assailing Shasha-Biton, who has been a vocal critic of many coronavirus restrictions and previously feuded with Alroy-Preis.

“Has she completely gone crazy?” the ministers are quoted saying. “Two million Israeli students are captive in the hands of a coronavirus denier.”