Attorney General Avichai Mendelblit issued a harsh denial on Wednesday to an Israel Hayom report regarding the chain of events that ultimately shelved Israel's plan to deliver surplus coronavirus vaccines to foreign countries.
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Mendelblit confirmed that in early January National Security Adviser Meir Ben-Shabbat did send him a letter pertaining to vaccine deliveries to foreign entities, but said the letter only mentioned vaccine distribution to the Palestinians, not other countries.
According to the attorney general, "The NSS chief's letter from January that was mentioned in the [Israel Hayom] article was within the context of the Goldin family's High Court petition to bar vaccine deliveries, mainly from foreign elements, to the Palestinian Authority and to Gaza, and only within this context. This letter did not mention the plan to transfer the vaccines purchased by Israel to other countries."
However, based on the full contents of the letter, which was obtained by Israel Hayom, Ben-Shabbat's directive pertained to all countries, not just the Palestinians. "We ask that any [vaccine] transfer to the Palestinian arena (or any other country/entity that is not Israeli) first be presented to the prime minister for approval," Ben-Shabbat wrote to Defense Minister Benny Gantz, Foreign Minister Gabi Ashkenazi, Health Minister Yuli Edelstein, the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories and Mendelblit (parentheses appeared in the original).
Mendelblit's office said in response: "The addendum in the letter (which was anyway written in parentheses and as a side note) did not address the circumstances of the [Goldin] petition which served as the context of the letter. The NSS chief's letter in question, as for the context in which it was disseminated, was a policy directive about the need for further approval from the prime minister, after an examination of the situation by the relevant and authorized ministries and officials. These are different circumstances altogether."
Meanwhile, the Chairman of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee MK Zvi Hauser (New Hope), lambasted Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for transferring vaccines to the Palestinians without receiving anything in return.
In response to Israel Hayom's report from Wednesday, Hauser said, "Netanyahu is trying to camouflage, within the framework of transferring vaccines to friendly countries, the transfer of vaccines to the leaders of the Palestinian Authority and leaders of Hamas in Gaza. We need to ask whether in exchange for supplying these vaccines in the shadows to the PA and to help PA President Mahmoud Abbas in the PA election, Netanyahu is receiving support from Abbas in the Israeli election."
Hauser added: "The proximity between the vaccine transfer to the Palestinians and the Deputy Minister in the Prime Minister's Office Fateen Mulla's reported talks with PLO officials is suspicious and raises difficult questions about the manner in which decisions were made in the Palestinian context."
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