Two more fecal tests have come back positive for the polio virus, the Health Ministry reported Thursday.

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Earlier this week, a four-year-old child tested positive for polio, the first recorded case in Israel since 1989.

One of the two positive samples was taken as part of the district health office's attempts to trace the contacts of the young polio patient. Thus far, three samples have been negative and 19 additional samples are being tested by the Infectious Diseases Research Laboratory at Sheba Medical Center at Tel Hashomer.

The second test that came back positive was taken as part of an anonymous fecal testing survey being conducted in and around Jerusalem. The Health Ministry is expanding the survey, running more fecal testing in Jerusalem, and testing more sewage samples in Jerusalem as well as in other locations in Israel.

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The conflict between supporters of Israel's COVID vaccination program and those who refuse to be vaccinated and oppose the government's green pass vaccination certificate has taken on a new dimension. A new initiative from the anti-vax camp seeks to establish a new, separate community for Israelis who refuse to be vaccinated.

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A member of the Facebook group "People of the Free Spirit", Yoav Etzion, suggested on Sunday that a new community for anti-vaxxers be built on the site of an abandoned IDF base near Haifa.

"One of the problems we all have is interaction with the injected [meaning vaccinated Israelis]," Etzion wrote. "Therefore, I thought that maybe we should set up our own separate communities. Obviously, they couldn't be existing communities because in every community there are injected [people]."

"The solution appears in the form of abandoned [army] camps. There's one not far from my house. The Juara Base was used for youth 'garins' until a few years ago. It has electricity, water, and phone infrastructure. The location is great (20 minutes from Haifa, five minutes from Yokneam) and the view is amazing, even at the end of summer when everything is dry.

"The existing buildings of course need renovation, but they could house 20-30 families. I'm certain that if we organize, we could get the place from the IDF and set up a lovely cooperative community," Etzion wrote.

Israel Hayom reached out to Etzion, who said that his post had attracted dozens of messages and that he had already reached out to the IDF to look into the feasibility of using the site for his idea.

"This is a very serious initiative. I'm sick of the violence I'm subjected to by the injected. Personally, I can't get the Pfizer vaccine because of a health condition, not that it matters to someone I wouldn't welcome in any case," he said.

Etzion alleged that in spite of his unspecified health condition, the Health Ministry "obligated" him to get the vaccination.

"The goal is to create a community without lockdowns, without testing in schools, without the green pass. Just a community in which people live like we did two years ago. No one will need to prove that they're healthy. The rationale for establishing the community is to have as little contact as possible with the hysterical 'injected.' It's simply unpleasant to be around them," he said.

Etzion is aware that the IDF would have to approve the use of the property for his proposed community, but says he is working to achieve his goal, and if an agreement in principle is reached, he will recruit a lawyer to continue the project.

"I've already gotten a few dozen messages. I'm still waiting for an answer from the IDF … because there's no point in hiring a lawyer if they refuse," he concluded.

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Rabbis in Israel are launching a campaign against worshippers who refuse to be vaccinated for COVID and are enacting more stringent measures to protect congregations – including a recent rabbinical ruling that decrees that unvaccinated individuals may not enter synagogues, participate in a minyan, or be called to the Torah.

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Chief Rabbi of Ramat Gan Yaakov Ariel, considered one of the leading halachic authorities in religious Zionism, has ruled that members of the community who decline to be vaccinated must face consequences for their actions, as they endanger others.

"A person who does not get vaccinated goes against Jewish law, which demands that people remain healthy. We need to demand that everyone be vaccinated," Ariel decreed.

"We must demand that unvaccinated people stay away from others. They should show respect by staying home and not infecting others. If someone like this arrives at a place where others are gathered, he [or she] must be asked to leave. Of course, not through violence, but he must not be allowed to remain [inside]," Ariel wrote.

"We must make the simple demand – do not cause us harm," the rabbi wrote.

Ariel underscored that individuals who refuse to be vaccinated "must not be allowed into synagogues, to participate in a minyan, or be called to the Torah." He said they could stay home or pray outside the synagogue.

Ariel joins a number of other leading rabbinical authorities in Israel who have adopted an almost unprecedented stance against vaccine refusal. This week, Rabbi Yitzhak Yehuda Yaroslavsky, a senior rabbi in the Chabad movement and head of the rabbinical court, also ruled that unvaccinated worshippers may not enter synagogues.

In related news, an unusual incident took place this week at a Torah lesson given by Rabbi Ben Zion Mutzafi. During the lesson, the rabbi argued with a student who claimed that "the Jewish people are not a laboratory" and said he believed in "the Creator."

Mutzafi was outraged and threw the student out. "More than 6,500 people have died," the rabbi told him. "Stop with your nonsense."

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