A prominent anti-vaccination activist on Monday succumbed to COVID-19 a week after he was hospitalized in Wolfson Medical Center in Holon.
Hai Shoulian, 57, has made a name for himself having organized demonstrations opposing the implementation of the Green Pass mandate — which requires Israelis to present proof of vaccination or recovery upon entering public facilities — as well as mask mandates and coronavirus vaccines.
He called on his friends and followers to refrain from getting vaccinated against the virus, claiming "there is no epidemic" and that the vaccine was "unnecessary and dangerous."
Shoulian, who was not vaccinated against coronavirus, was arrested at an anti-Green Pass demonstration in Jerusalem about two weeks ago and was brought before a judge the next day. Shortly after, he began to feel unwell, later testing positive for coronavirus at the hospital.
Last week, Shoulian uploaded to social media a video of himself from his hospital bed in which he claimed to his large follower base he had been poisoned.
"The Jerusalem Police tried to poison me. I have never felt this way in my life," he told his followers. "I fought this for the entire week as if nothing had happened, but today I could no longer breathe and went to my healthcare provider and from there I was taken to Wolfson Hospital. If anything happens to me — you know it's an attempt to assassinate me."
His condition has deteriorated significantly in recent days and he required assistance breathing. On Saturday, he shared a photo of himself connected to a ventilator and described the severity of his illness.
"I'm in critical condition, unable to speak and respond to people. I have no oxygen. Lack of oxygen is a terrible and horrible thing," he wrote in the photo's caption.
Shoulian further egged on his followers to continue fighting the state which allegedly "practices criminal, self-interested coercion" and railed against the Green Pass, which according to him "has nothing to do with coronavirus, it has nothing to do with vaccines, it has everything to do with coercion."
After his passing on Monday, some of Shoulian's supporters began claiming he received sub-par treatment from hospital staff due to his beliefs, with one of them even claiming his death was orchestrated by the Shin Bet domestic security agency in cooperation with the police and hospital staff.