Israeli parliament approves law allowing government to share identities of unvaccinated

The Israeli parliament approved a law on Wednesday that allows the government to share identities of those who have not been vaccinated against the coronavirus.

Local governments, the director general of the education ministry and others in the welfare ministry will have the names, addresses and phone numbers of Israeli citizens who have not been vaccinated so they can call and encourage them to get it, AFP reported.

Israel has already vaccinated a third of its people and is allowing those who are vaccinated to go to the gym and indoor dining. 

The law was passed in a 30-13 vote after an intense debate surrounding privacy concerns of allowing information of unvaccinated people to be released and used. 

Those in parliament who supported the measure released a statement that said the information can only be used to contact and encourage citizens to get vaccinated.

Israel has used the Pfizer vaccine in order to vaccinate its population so far and has had one of the world’s more successful rollouts of the vaccine.

If an unvaccinated person is called about the vaccine, they can tell the person who called to delete their information from the list. The law also says after a person is called, their information has to be deleted within 60 days whether they asked for it to be deleted or not. 

Many people around the world are refusing to get the coronavirus vaccine, citing concerns regarding how fast the vaccines were made.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his party were in support of the law while some in the Labor party in Israel were against it.

The law will remain in place for a minimum of three months or until the country says the pandemic is over.