Dr. Tamir Geshen, head of Israel’s Veterinary Services, has resigned from the Agriculture and Food Security Ministry after a cumulative eight years in the post. His departure comes amid one of the country’s most serious recent rabies outbreaks and renewed criticism of the long-running privatization of veterinary services, which has shifted more responsibilities to local authorities over the past decade.
In his resignation letter, Geshen cited operational strain, including the effects of merging headquarters, disputes with ministry management, cuts in staff and budgets, and weakened ability to advance modern information systems. According to the article, the ministry’s veterinarians have increasingly been pushed from field operators into a supervisory role. Dr. Michael Ettinger, chairman of the Israel Veterinary Association, said the resignation reflects “a more complex situation of the collapse of local and government veterinary services.”
The broader warning, he wrote to Agriculture Minister Avi Dichter and ministry director general Oren Lavie, is that the system has been stripped of its independence. One professional source said the service suffers from budget and staffing shortages and damage to professional standards, including the pipeline of younger veterinarians. The source added, “To fix what happened in the last decade will take a long time. And one must remember that a veterinarian is a field professional, not a clerk. The Agriculture Ministry forgot that.”
Rabies has reached 72 cases since the start of the year, alongside outbreaks of brucellosis, bovine tuberculosis, and avian flu. Veterinary association figures also noted that during Geshen’s tenure an Israeli citizen died of rabies, something not seen in the 21st century. The ministry also faces foot-and-mouth disease, and although it had vaccine doses for the virulent strain affecting wildlife this year, they were not used. Summer now prevents oral rabies vaccination drops from surviving in the heat.
Ettinger said Geshen’s resignation shows a structural failure, not isolated mishaps, and called for immediate organizational, budgetary, and managerial reform. The ministry said the Civil Service Commission will soon begin selecting a permanent replacement and denied that Geshen was mistreated. It said it will continue providing professional, continuous services on animal health, public health, food security, rabies, foot-and-mouth disease, stray dogs, and animal welfare.
