A mask abandoned on the beach in Tel Aviv (Israel), in May 2020 (illustration) -

Oded Balilty / AP / SIPA

  • If Israel is a benchmark in terms of vaccine coverage against Covid-19, some of its citizens would suffer at the same time from discriminatory measures, according to several Facebook or Twitter publications.

  • Many Internet users claim, with supporting images, that access to a Tel Aviv beach would only be allowed to people who have been vaccinated.

  • If the poster in question has been installed in Tel Aviv, the municipality explains to

    20 Minutes

    having removed it as quickly as possible in the face of this misunderstanding, and never having considered prohibiting access to any place. public to unvaccinated residents.

While Emmanuel Macron and the government are working on the implementation, at the national level, of a decried "health pass" - an individualized digital monitoring project supposed to make it possible to reopen restaurants and cultural places -, some are eyeing the side of other countries, such as Israel, in an attempt to get a taste of potential next health measures.

If the Hebrew state can boast of having to date the largest vaccine coverage in the world against Covid-19, Internet users are however worried about an astonishing measure which would have been adopted on part of its coastline: the prohibition of access to certain beaches for unvaccinated people.

"In Israel they have made beaches reserved for vaccinated people, we walk on the head there", thus affirms the caption of a Facebook post showing the video of two green tarpaulins, by the sea, bearing a mention in Hebrew and a another in English, on which we can read: "Reserved exclusively for vaccinated persons."

But it is above all in the form of a viral photo, showing the same informative panels marked with a logo in the colors of the city of Tel Aviv, that this claim is circulating on social networks.

"[For] this summer with us?

“Asks one Internet user, when another wonders if such a device will“ soon be trendy in France ”.

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One of the first occurrences of the photo dates back to Saturday, February 27, on Twitter, thanks to its publication by a user of the social network denouncing this "sorting" between citizens.

She shared in the wake of a video broadcast live on Facebook the same morning by a resident of Tel Aviv, in which we can clearly see the two green tarpaulins, installed on the sand, a few meters from recreational facilities for children.

As we can see at 35 minutes, in particular, the device is far from scaring visitors since some settle directly on it, as if they were giant seats.

These images were indeed filmed in Tel Aviv, more precisely along the Shlomo Lahat promenade: certain tourist photos uploaded by the municipality allow the places to be identified - and to note that this location seems reserved for the display of different types of messages.

"Tel Aviv has never considered restricting access to the beach to vaccinated people"

Contacted by

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, the city of Tel Aviv indicates that "the giant seat was never reserved for vaccinated people but was simply intended to encourage residents to be vaccinated".

"As soon as it became clear that this message could be misunderstood, it was immediately withdrawn by the municipal teams", continues the municipality, while a photo posted on Facebook by another Internet user, Sunday February 28, effectively shows the informational message in English replaced by a gaping hole.

“We would like to remind you that Tel Aviv has never considered restricting access to the beach or any other public place to vaccinated people.

The Hebrew message installed next to it simply says: "Vaccinated in Tel Aviv-Jaffa" in the hope of encouraging selfies and inciting vaccination, "concludes the municipality, recalling that 74.7% of its population eligible received her first dose of the Covid-19 vaccine and that 56.8% of them received the two doses of the Pfizer vaccine.

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