Media blackout of Israel's medical freedom party on eve of vote

Lawmakers for medical freedom 

Individual politicians, including Senator Rand Paul and Congressional representatives Louie Gohmert and Marjorie Taylor Greene, have worked from within existing political parties to oppose COVID restrictions of all kinds. Few nations, though, have political parties which oppose such restrictions as part of their party platform. 

Parties for medical freedom 

Australia has a party in which every party member is dedicated to medical freedom. The United Australia Party (UAP), under the leadership of Craig Kelly, passed a national policy platform unequivocally opposed to virus restrictions:

• End Lockdowns. Forever - Lockdowns destroy businesses, jobs and the Australian standard of living … and lockdowns cause more harm to society than any marginal benefits they may bring … the Australian Constitution provides for the “absolutely free” movement of people … 
• No Domestic Vaccine Passports - … so-called “fully vaccinated people” can still become infected and … pass the virus on to others. Therefore ‘vaccine passports’ are premised on a false assumption … It is undemocratic and wrong to deny any Australian their constitutional rights and freedoms because they choose not to take part in a vaccination program for personal or medical reasons.
• Protecting Free Speech from Foreign Tech Giants - Foreign tech giants that operate as platforms (not publishers) such as Facebook, YouTube and Twitter should not be able to censor Australian political debate.

The party is represented by Ralph Babet in the Australian Senate.

Created for freedom

Israel, whose prime ministers are dependent on coalitions of large and small parties, has a party which didn’t just adopt a platform opposed to COVID restrictions but was actually created specifically to protect medical freedom. The party is named “Ometz,” which is Hebrew for “courage”.

Ometz was founded by Professor Tzvika Granot, a leading immunologist at the prestigious Hebrew University who conducted his postdoctoral training at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York and whose lab is supported by a prominent research grant from the Israel Cancer Research Fund. Dr. Granot is credited with discovering the role of neutrophils in disease metastasis despite their anti-tumor properties. 

Before entering politics, Professor Granot was active in the “Public Emergency Council for the COVID-19 Crisis,” an organization of doctors, researchers and scientists providing scientific data against the Israeli government’s lockdown decisions. With members of the Knesset continuing to invoke emergency powers to limit medical freedom, despite evidence opposing those moves, Granot decided it was time for like minded people to enter the Knesset:

We are a group of scientists, doctors and social activists, who decided together to put our careers aside and establish a party that will engrave on its flag, democracy and human rights …

Not just lockdowns and vaccines

Granot’s newly created political party quickly formed a comprehensive list of guiding principles which go beyond the issues presented by the government’s COVID policy, touching on all aspects of government overreach and corruption.  The principles call for 

• a permanent ban on the use of “Emergency Regulations”
• a permanent ban on any social ranking mechanisms, including vaccine passports
• repeal of Israel’s cash restriction law (making it a crime to pay more than NIS 6,000 (about $1,700) in cash for any product or service, like a wedding band)
• transparency of funding sources of elected officials to prevent conflicts of interest
• oversight of CPS to prevent unwarranted removal of children from their home 
• allowing insurance coverage for alternative health therapies 
• examination of safety of childhood vaccines
• vouchers for homeschooling
• removing barriers to small businesses, including repeal of law providing individual importers the exclusive right to import certain products
• compensation for those injured by the mRNA jabs

Media Blackout

While many Israelis may agree more with Ometz’s platform than that of other parties, they would need to know that the party exists in order to choose them when the nation votes on Tuesday this week. Most do not.

Other than a few hit pieces on Professor Granot and the doctors, scientists, lawyers, social activists and former intelligence official who lead the party, the media has chosen to avoid any mention of “Ometz”. The party is not even included in the list of choices presented to potential voters during phone surveys conducted on behalf of Israel’s legacy media outlets. 

In an exclusive discussion with Frontline News, Professor Granot revealed what happens when citizens tell pollsters that they will be voting for Ometz: 

Ometz is not offered as one of the potential candidate parties by any of the TV station polls. When people being polled volunteer on their own that they will be voting for Ometz, the polling companies say that they cannot include their preference and instead exclude them from the poll results entirely.

This ensures that Ometz is never mentioned in any poll results. 

Political blackout

Adding to the challenges facing the new party, the parties already sitting in the Knesset made it particularly difficult for new, small parties to replace them. To enter the 120 member Knesset, a party must receive enough votes to place 4 party members in the legislative body, meaning that the party must receive at least 3.25% of the vote. A party earning enough votes for 3 Knesset members is blocked from entering the Knesset altogether.

Ometz encourages voters to choose them in any case, explaining, 

even if a certain party does not pass the blocking percentage, the votes it received are not “thrown away” – as it is enough to receive 1% of the votes to win funding for the party’s current activities.

Party leaders therefore believe that 1% of the vote would set the ground for a possible entry into the Knesset in the following elections, in addition to sending a message to establishment parties that medical freedom is important to voters.