Israel PM announces end of vaccine ‘green pass’

JERUSALEM: Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett announced Thursday the requirement to show proof of coronavirus vaccination to enter various sites will soon end, as the wave of infections wanes.

Israel had been a early trailblazer of a national vaccine rollout and among the first countries to demand a vaccination certificate, which it called the green pass, to enter a range of facilities.

Bennett said that with a clear decline in both the number of serious Covid cases and the number of confirmed infections, it was a ‘good time’ to scrap the vaccine proof requirement.

“We will stop using the green pass,” Bennett said.

The green pass has been a fixture in Israeli life for much of the past year, a requirement to enter bars, restaurants, hotels, gyms and houses of worship, among other sites.

While the country did not see large scale anti-vaccination protests that affected many other countries, there have been occasional demonstrations and signs of widening frustration.

Thousands of Israelis streamed into Jerusalem from across the country on Monday in a ‘freedom convoy’ against coronavirus restrictions, that mirrored similar traffic-blocking protests in Canada and around the world.

The demonstrators blared their car horns and waved Canadian and Israeli flags as they made their way towards the seat of Israel’s government.