The Health Ministry has decided to revoke the medical license of Dr. Arieh Avni, who opposes vaccines, even for coronavirus.
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Avni recently announced he had founded a political party named Rapeh and would be running in the March 23 Knesset election.
The decision to revoke Avni's license was made by Judge (ret.) Amnon Strashnov, who was given the authority to do so by Health Minister Yuli Edelstein.
Avni operates a website and Facebook page on which he publishes articles. Recent posts include a call encouraging the public to flout the Health Ministry's COVID regulations, as well as other articles attacking the medical community.
In the ruling, Strashnov wrote, "There is no doubt that the defendant's harsh, crude statements in articles he published on the website, on Facebook, and recently on YouTube against the COVID vaccine pose a real danger to the public welfare and public health.
"Add this to his unchecked, baseless attacks against doctors and Health Ministry officials – which far exceed what is allowed or reasonable under freedom of expression, which is a crucial value in any democratic society – and you have a recipe for total anarchy that the complainant is trying to cause, while boasting about his medical degree and his title of "doctor," Strashnov continued.
"I have not found any link between the important principle of freedom of speech, which the defendant is arguing, and the slanderous and harsh comments he has made – without any academic or scientific basis – all from his fruitful and unchecked imagination. The defendant and others like him should know that freedom of speech does not mean freedom to divide or express contempt," the judge wrote.
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Strashnov went on to write: "As for the punishment, has the respected doctor hear nothing about over 5,000 COVID patients, mostly elderly, who died, who apparently did not hear or take the defendant's recommendation to 'take vitamins'? Has the defendant heard nothing about the serious side effects suffered by some recovered COVID patients? Has he not read the studies showing the vaccines to be over 90% effective, or missed them? Has he not read any of the studies conducted on COVID or any scientific material? It's very doubtful, in my opinion."
Strashnov wrote that while for Avni, COVID "might be a curiosity or a joke, as he put it," it was no joke for the thousands of sick, dead, and their relatives.
"I regret to say that the defendant is a charlatan, a COVID denier, and a dangerous trickster, and has the audacity to behave that way as a licensed doctor," the judge wrote, adding that the worst incident in his opinion was "the fact that while proceedings were under way in this case, he [Avni] continued to spread his poisonous, dangerous theory, mocking public health."
Strashnov called Avni "a repeat offender" who was facing disciplinary action for the third time as he thumbed his nose at the Health Ministry, without expressing any regret or changing his ways.
