In an attempt to prevent the cancellation of the cabinet meeting on vaccine contracts scheduled for Monday, Finance Minister Israel Katz sent a letter to Defense Minister Benny Gantz requesting him to go ahead with the arrangement.
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Gantz called off the meeting Sunday evening over Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's "refusal" to approve him as permanent justice minister. Gantz has been serving as interim justice minister since Avi Nissenkorn resigned from the post earlier this year and is demanding a permanent appointment before his term expires at the beginning of April.
According to Katz, unless the government approves the vaccine budget, Israel might miss out on the chance to purchase vaccines for the upcoming year, including inoculations for children.
"The investment in vaccines saves lives and allows for setting the economy in motion," he wrote on Facebook. "Israel needs to continue to be the leading country in the world on the issue of vaccines, and political disagreements must not prevent the continued treatment of urgent health and economic issue."
Likud echoed a similar sentiment in its statement. "For the sake of appointments and jobs, Gantz is halting the singing of contracts for millions of vaccines that are needed for Israelis in the next round of vaccination. If the government doesn't approve the contracts immediately, inoculation manufacturers can cancel them and send [the vaccines] to other countries. Benny Gantz is acting irresponsibly and is putting the wellbeing and health of every Israeli at risk."
Blue and White sent a letter to the Cabinet Secretariat requesting them to assure that every minister signs a non-disclosure agreement, and as soon as Blue and White received copies of those, "within 48 hours, they would hold a cabinet meeting." Signing non-disclosure agreements is necessary as contracts with vaccine manufacturers are confidential.
Government sources familiar with the matter told Israel Hayom that the initiative to hold the cabinet meeting was Gantz's in the first place. "Only on Thursday, he [Gantz] pushed to hold the meeting. Now, for political reasons, it no longer suits him," Likud confirmed in a statement.
In response, a source close to Gantz told Israel Hayom that "an accused criminal is trying to silence the judiciary system and intimidate it, which is a danger to Israeli democracy, and we will fight it."
"As for the governmental proposal, it is full of loopholes, and it is not clear why it is so urgent, and why are there requests for new budgets when there are [funds] left over from the existing ones?"
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