After weeks of mounting pressure from the international community, Israel announced that it will be giving 5,000 doses of its COVID-19 vaccine supplies to the Palestinian Authority (PA) — an amount so minuscule, that the PA said it “will not help us.”
Israel announced the move on Sunday, with a spokesperson for Defense Minister Benny Gantz telling AFP “I confirm we are going to send 5,000 vaccines to medical teams in the Palestinian Authority.”
The doses, according to AFP, are intended to inoculate Palestinian medical personnel and those on the front lines fighting the coronavirus. It remained unclear when the shipment would be made, and when the PA would start vaccinating healthcare workers.
But with two doses required per person, the shipment will only result in the vaccination of 2,500 medical personnel, leaving thousands more healthcare workers across the West Bank and Gaza at risk.
An unnamed Palestinian official told AFP that the shipment was a “symbolic move” and that it “will not help us.”
Israel has come out as a world leader for its distribution of the COVID-19 vaccine, so far inoculating 3.2 million people (34.3 percent of the country’s population). But Israel has, as right groups have pointed out, failed to uphold its responsibility under international law to vaccinate the Palestinian population it occupies in Gaza and the West Bank.
If the shipment of 5,000 vaccines does go through and the PA begins vaccinating healthcare workers, the lucky recipients of the vaccine will, according to public knowledge, be the first Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and Gaza to receive the COVID-19 vaccine.
Last month the PA denied receiving a shipment of “dozens” of COVID-19 vaccines from Israel, following reports from Israel’s Kan news broadcaster that , the vaccines were delivered at the after the PA made a request for “special humanitarian cases.”
While the PA called the reports “groundless rumors,” it did lead to some speculation that the government had received some amount of vaccine doses and secretly distributed them to government officials.
The PA has given few updates in recent weeks when it comes to their efforts at obtaining a vaccine — something they assured the Palestinian public they would have achieved back in December.
Their radio silence has only confirmed fears that the PA is nowhere near where it needs to be in terms of securing vaccines for its citizens. On top of that, the government has still yet to make public any detailed plans for how it intends to distribute the vaccine to the population.
In a vague and contradictory statement on Monday, official PA news agency Wafa quoted Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammed Shtayyeh as saying that his government “expects to get 50,000 vaccine vials from different sources, but mainly COVAX, and therefore vaccinating the Palestinian population in the West Bank and Gaza Strip will start in the middle of this month, while the first batch of vaccines the government has ordered and paid for is supposed to arrive by the end of this month.”
In the meantime, COVID-19 cases continue to rise in the occupied Palestinian territory (oPt), with dozens of cases of the new fast-spreading strain of COVID-19 being reported in several cities in the West Bank.
In the past 24 hours the Palestinian Ministry of Health (MOH) reported 513 new cases of the virus in the oPt and nine COVID-19 related deaths. The ministry added that there are currently 54 coronavirus patients in intensive care, 16 of whom are on respirators.
On Monday the PA announced that it would be extending lockdown measures in the West Bank for another two weeks in order to curb the spread of the virus. In recent days police have started cracking down on a nation-wide mask mandate, and have been imposing a 7pm – 6am curfew from Sunday-Thursday, as well as full-scale closures on Fridays and Saturdays.
But many Palestinians remain skeptical as whether the strict measures will last more than just a few days — after all, the latest efforts seem futile, as most restaurants, shops, businesses, and offices are to remain open as usual on weekdays, and family gatherings continue on uninterrupted.
The token amounts of vaccines, just to silence the criticism from international organizations. The Israelis have shown their cruelty, and treated the Palestinians so inhumanely, so depriving them of vaccines that will save lives should not surprise anyone. The zionists have a streak of sadism, and meanness, when it comes to dealing with the Palestinians. This time no different.
Israel’s failure to inoculate Palestinians against Covid should be considered a war crime under international law | Defend Democracy Press
“Israel’s failure to inoculate Palestinians against Covid should be considered a war crime under international law” Defend Democracy Press, Jan. 27/21 by Daniel Kovalik.
EXCERPT:
“While Israel is being applauded for having one of the best Covid-19 vaccine programs in the world, it is rightly coming under increased criticism for not providing immunizations to Palestinians living in Gaza and the West Bank.
“The legality of this refusal largely revolves around whether Israel is the occupying power over these territories – an issue on which it can take quite a fluid stance, depending upon what benefits its interests at any given moment.
“The Times of Israel explains the issue well: ‘According to the Fourth Geneva Convention, Israel, if it is considered an occupying power, is required to provide vaccines to Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza. The Convention obligates an occupying power to ‘import the necessary medical supplies, including medicaments, vaccines, and sera, when the resources of the occupied territory are inadequate.’”
“Of course, the United Nations unequivocally recognizes Israel as the occupying power over both Gaza and the West Bank. For example, in 2004, the UN Security Council passed binding Resolution 1544, explicitly “[r]eiterating the obligation of Israel, the occupying Power, to abide scrupulously by its legal obligations and responsibilities under the Fourth Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War of 12 August 1949.” This, of course, should end the matter.
“Still, Israel denies being the occupying power, at least for the issue of being required to abide by the Geneva Conventions. However, this claim is not only belied by numerous UN resolutions, it is also belied by Israel’s own conduct in Palestine.
“For one, Israel’s position is contradicted by its ever-growing settlement construction in the West Bank – the settlements themselves constituting an independent violation of international law. Thus, in 2020 alone, over 12,000 settlement homes in the West Bank were approved by the Israeli government, adding to existing settlements there which already house around 450,000 Israelis. And, of course, these Israeli settlers are receiving vaccinations from the Israeli government.”
Not only will it not help, it is an insult and an affront. For shame, israel…for shame.
5000 doses do not help? Simple enough, refuse them and wait on the Russian vaccine.
In the meantime, Israel has ZERO obligation to do anything more. Even presuming that Israel had an obligation under international law (it does not), and laughable war crime libels aside – there is nothing in international law that declares Israel must inoculate Palestinians ahead of their own citizens. There is nothing in international law that declares Israel must produce vaccines that do not exist. And their is nothing in international law that declares Israel must provide a Pfizer vaccine to Palestinians who do not have the refrigeration necessary to store and distribute.
And most galling of all, when provided with vaccines, the Palestinians do what they do best – turn it into a propaganda exercise against Israel.
The Palestinian leadership is chocablock full of hypocrites. On the one hand they don’t want to be seen as accepting any kind of charity from Israelis, on the other hand they criticise what Israel offers as inadaquate. They love to perpetuate victimhood in order to muster sympathy. Their problem is that most of the world is now aware of their duplicitious antics.