Israel creates new government unit to prosecute critics of public health officials

Israel is creating a special unit under the Health Ministry that will begin aggressively prosecuting Israelis who criticize public health officials, Channel 14 News reported Thursday. The government plans to sue certain political opponents for defamation, particularly those who are also critical of the vaccine. 

“What the State Attorney’s Office does not do and the police are lazy to do, a special team of the Ministry of Health will do: publications are slowly being collected, and defamation lawsuits are being investigated and planned against at least five vaccine activists, alongside the forthcoming lawsuit against Alon [Beer],” reported Channel 14 excitedly. 

Alon Beer is the recently appointed CEO of the semi-governmental organization Shalom Corps, which is modeled after the United States Peace Corps and partially funded by Israel’s Foreign Ministry. In 2020, Beer criticized Ministry of Health Public Services Head Dr. Sharon Alroy-Preis on his personal Twitter account, reportedly calling her a liar and accusing her of entering a corrupt arrangement with Pfizer. Alroy-Preis was named in the original agreement with Pfizer in which Israel agreed to experiment on its population with the vaccine. 

In 2021, he also used his personal Twitter account to criticize Sheba Medical Center Infectious Disease Unit Head Prof. Galia Rahav. As reported by America’s Frontline News, Rahav has been one of the country’s most vociferous COVID mandate supporters and, against scientific evidence, has been the most enthusiastic voice for continued lockdowns and forced child vaccinations. 

“Galia Rahav burned Israel. The blood of thousands is on her hands,” tweeted Beer in March last year. 

Rahav received little to no media coverage prior to the pandemic and began fading from the spotlight as mandates were largely rolled back in recent months. Last month, she urged Israel’s government to re-instate COVID-19 mandates.  

Now, Channel 14 News is proudly reporting that the government will be pursuing Beer for his criticisms. 

“The war on fake news: The Ministry of Health has set up a team to monitor and examine false and threatening publications,” the outlet reported. “As part of this, a lawsuit is being considered against Alon Beer.” 

Beer, who says he is vaccinated, is the founder of the Public Emergency Council, a group of medical experts and academics who oppose COVID-19 mandates. Beer has also reportedly questioned the safety and efficacy of the vaccine. 

The Health Ministry is creating the new unit ostensibly because the State Attorney’s Office is refusing to prosecute Beer and other dissenters. Normally, such actions would fall to the Civil Enforcement Unit (CEU), an arm of the State Attorney’s Office within the Ministry of Justice.  

The unit “focuses on the protection of State assets and government propriety, by means of enforcement with civil tools,” says the Office of the State Attorney’s website. “Within this framework, the Unit initiates the filing of civil claims in considerable sums of money on behalf of the State and for the sake of the public as a whole.”