Israeli candidate who pushed for forced vaccinations silent on ‘unvaccinated’ votes

A candidate running in Israel’s general election Tuesday who pushed for forced vaccinations and harsh vaccine mandates is silent about whether he would accept votes from the “unvaccinated,” or whether they should be allowed to vote at all. 

MK Bezalel Smotrich has become a popular political figure among the Israeli Right and, according to polls, his Religious Zionism Party is expected to come in fourth place. 

Last year, Smotrich positioned himself as one of the main proponents of vaccine mandates and even suggested being open to physically forcing injections. 

“Of course vaccines can be forced, even if not physically,” Smotrich told Reshet Bet radio in February 2021. “We can condition entry into public places [on vaccinations], for example. The economy would be returned to its normal routine exclusively for the vaccinated. Those who are not vaccinated would not get into school, the supermarket, the mall, the cinema, the theater, the bus.” 

Smotrich proudly declared that any employee of his who refused the injections would be fired. 

However, it is unclear whether Smotrich would include voting booths among the many places he would bar the unvaccinated from visiting. 

America’s Frontline News reached out to Smotrich to ask if he believes those who refused the COVID-19 injections should be allowed to vote. 

We also asked him if he would decline votes from those who were unvaccinated, or if he would prefer that those who have not taken the shots vote for another party. 

But Smotrich so far has not responded to America’s Frontline News’ inquiry. 

While the Religious Zionism chairman was an ardent opponent of former Prime Minister Naftali Bennett and was the first to officially call for new elections, he agreed with the disgraced prime minister about vaccinations. 

For Bennett, no punishment or humiliation was seemingly great enough for those who refused the shots. Not only did he enforce the Green Pass vaccine passports in synagogues, malls, restaurants, schools, kindergartens, theatres, gyms, driving tests and other activities and places, he proposed lockdowns for the unvaccinated and tried to introduce special bracelets to publicly identify the unvaccinated in shopping malls. 

In August 2021 Bennett claimed that not taking the injections is “as if you’re walking around with a machine gun firing Delta variants at people.” 

In April 2022 Smotrich reportedly advocated for his political opponents to be barred from synagogues, while Bennett appeared horrified that that anyone should be barred from a synagogue. 

“Will a Jew boycott another Jew in a synagogue?” Bennett responded. “That is what destroyed our nation 2,000 years ago,” referring to the destruction of the Second Temple. 

 “We have forgotten that we have a nation, a good nation, a positive nation, a nation that volunteers and assists,” Bennett added.