Israel starts vaccinating prisoners after delay
After Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit warned that keeping them lower in the queue was illegal, Public Security Minister Amir Ohana ordered the prison services to start vaccinating elderly inmates.
The Israel Prisons Service said on Jan. 17 it will begin vaccinating all inmates this week, including Palestinians. A statement issued by the IPS said, “Following the vaccination of staff … the vaccination of detainees will begin in prisons in accordance with medical and operational protocols established by the Prison Service.” According to several publications yesterday, vaccination of prisoners aged 60 and older is rolling out.
The IPS announcement came three days after Health Minister Yuli Edelstein pledged to start vaccinating all prisoners the following week, including Palestinian security detainees. Edelstein stated, “We adhere to all of the priority committee’s guidelines,” explaining that the inmates will be vaccinated according to the national vaccination priorities set by his ministry: starting with the elderly and vulnerable.
On the same day that Edelstein made this promise, the IPS published its weekly update on the pandemic in incarceration facilities. It said that as of Jan. 14, 153 inmates held at Israeli facilities have been confirmed to be infected, 41 of them from an incident at the Ketziot prison and 30 from another at Ramon. In a second communique that day, the IPS gave details on treatment at Ramon. It said that the IPS continues to do what is necessary to prevent the spread of the virus within the detention facilities, adding that only official announcements and instructions to the public should be relied upon.
Between the lines of the three announcements could be read a war between Edelstein and Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit and Public Security Minister Amir Ohana. Edelstein's Jan. 14 announcement in fact overrode objections from Ohana, who is the minister with authority over prisons.
