Israel News for 11-13-2020
News Update
The Health Ministry reported 817 new coronavirus cases on Thursday. The contagion rate has risen to 2.1%. There are currently 8,059 active cases of which 303 people are hospitalized in serious condition and 133 on ventilators. There have been 2,706 coronavirus related deaths since the start of the pandemic.
PM Netanyahu announced that Israel has signed a deal with Pfizer for 8 million doses of the company’s new vaccine. Israel will begin receiving the vaccine in January. Israel is also in talks with other vaccine development companies.
Israel’s supreme court has ordered the state to justify, within 21 days, the legal agreement at the core of the current unity government that regulates its power-sharing deal and the institution of the alternate prime minister. To read more about this click here.
The body of IDF Corporal Sagi Ben David, who had been missing since Tuesday, was found near the Hizma checkpoint near East Jerusalem. Ben David was serving at the Anatot base near Jerusalem, where he was last seen. He apparently turned off his phone when he left the base. The IDF and police are investigating the circumstances of his death, but sources said it appears his death was not terror related.
During the World Health Organization’s Thursday meeting on the global response to the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic, 30 delegations took the opportunity to blame Israel for “allegedly violating the health rights of Palestinians and Syrians in the Golan Heights.” Included in those delegations were Venezuela, Iran, Syria, North Korea, Cuba, Malaysia and Lebanon. The WHO session concluded with a vote of 78 to 14, with 32 abstentions, to adopt a resolution, co-sponsored by Syria, Cuba, Turkey, Qatar and the Palestinian delegation, requiring the WHO to hold the same debate at next year’s assembly, and to prepare another report on the “Health conditions in the occupied Palestinian territory, including east Jerusalem, and in the occupied Syrian Golan.”
England’s Prince Charles has made a private donation to the Peres Center for Peace and Innovation, making it the first time a member of the British royal family has made an official personal donation to an Israeli cause. British Ambassador to Israel Neil Wigan said, “The contribution to the Peres Center reflects the impact of the prince’s visits to Israel, and the importance of the relations between Britain and Israel.”
