Visitors to the prime minister’s Facebook page, who clicked on a link to the coronavirus, received an automatic message, claiming to come from Netanyahu.
“If you have friends or family members aged 60 or over who have not yet been vaccinated, you can write an answer here with your name and phone number, and I can call to convince you!” the message read.
Acting and removing the items, Facebook said, through a spokesperson, that “according to our privacy policy, we do not allow content that shares or requests medical information from people.”
The spokesman added that Facebook “removed the offending post and temporarily suspended the Messenger bot, which shared that content, for breaking these rules.”
The Netanyahu Likud party issued a statement in response, saying the goal “was to encourage Israelis over 60 to get vaccinated to save their lives after Prime Minister Netanyahu brought vaccines for all Israeli citizens”.
The party said it is calling on “everyone to get vaccinated so that we can open the economy and be the first in the world to get out of the coronavirus”.
Netanyahu, who faces a fourth election in two years in March, made Israel’s world-leading vaccination program the central message of his re-election campaign.