February 28, 2021
Dear Dr. Fauci,
We are writing to you as “fans” of your work. As health professionals, we so often found ourselves appreciative and relieved by your calm steady voice during the Trumpian chaos, bravely, stubbornly standing up for science and public health, truly a monumental task. Thank you. Thank you.
We understand that you stay above the fray by refusing to engage in bruising political fights. Ironically, public health, by nature, lives at that intersection between health care and politics. Just think of your involvement in HIV/AIDS research and treatment.
You have said, for this pandemic to be defeated, everyone must be vaccinated, that is the nature of conquering a highly infectious disease. Yet we are faced with massive global inequities, countries – particularly in the global south – where there is no vaccine at all, while first world countries scoop up the vaccine supply as their disadvantaged populations and people of color struggle for access. Addressing this issue is going to take incredible political and moral will.
In that vein, we want to congratulate you on winning the Israeli Dan David Prize for “Speaking Truth to Power” amid the pandemic. As you are likely aware, Israel is being lauded for an amazing vaccination program (despite a lack of attention to its Palestinian citizens and the resistance of the ultra-Orthodox). However, Israel’s refusal to take responsibility for the Palestinians living under Israeli occupation is highly problematic. That policy is illegal according to international law, immoral, and ill advised. Tens of thousands of West Bank Palestinians work in Israel, in the Jewish settlements in the West Bank, or are imprisoned in Israeli jails. Living amongst a largely unvaccinated population puts Israelis at risk for the current virus and developing variants.
Even U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken reminded the Israeli government of its obligation to the Palestinians. Blinken spoke with Foreign Minister Gabi Ashkenazi and asked that Israel help in delivering coronavirus vaccines from abroad to the Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
The ultimate solution to the issue of vaccine inequity for Palestinians is for Israel to uphold its responsibility under international law and provide vaccine to the Palestinians under occupation. However, we would like to suggest that you could send a powerful message and improve public health for many thousands of people if you donated some portion of your one million dollars in prize money and used that to buy vaccines for Palestinians living in the West Bank and Gaza. Not only would that be a step towards resolving vaccine inequity, but it would be a powerful message about the value and dignity of every human life. It would also be a strong message saying that health care needs to be above politics, and that it is just plain wrong to allow politics to be a divider, where some lives are valued and protected and others ignored.
Thank you.
Jewish Voice for Peace Health Advisory Council
Alan Meyers, MD, MPH
Alice Rothchild, MD
Amy Alpert, CCC-SLP
Maxine Fookson, RN, MN
Peter Sporn, MD
Rachel Rubin, MD, MPH
S. Komarovsky, MPH
Sima Kahn, MD
Trude Bennett, MSW, DrPH
2 of 2
“Under international law, as an occupying power Israel is fully obligated in ‘ensuring and maintaining … the medical and hospital establishments and services, public health and hygiene in the occupied territory,’ especially regarding ‘preventive measures necessary to combat the spread of contagious diseases and epidemics.’ This includes supplying vaccinations to the Palestinians living in the West Bank.
“Israel doesn’t seem to find this obligation on the top of its priority list. Although it has successfully managed to vaccinate nearly half of its population, it has only passed a few thousand vaccine doses to the Palestinian Authority.
“Despite those facts, organizations like AJC not only demanded an ‘SNL’ apology but decided to start a campaign and mobilize its supporters around the issue by spreading a petition on social media, calling on NBC to ‘retract its outrageous claim’ and apologize immediately.
“It is truly a mystery why these organizations choose to focus their attention on a comedian who has nothing to do with the very real and very deadly epidemic of anti-Semitism unfolding in the United States.
“It is not anti-Semitic to note that Jewish settlers living in the West Bank are full and equal citizens of Israel, while Palestinians living there are deprived of basic rights; it is the plain truth.
“Instead of issuing disingenuous statements against TV comedians, organizations like AJC should use their full power to combat deadly anti-Semitism, and call on Israel to fulfill its legal and moral obligation to vaccinate everyone living under their control.”
1 of 2
Israel’s ‘vaccine diplomacy’ is a scandal, not Michael Che’s ‘SNL’ joke – Jewish Telegraphic Agency (jta.org)
Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Feb. 25/21, by Adi Adamit-Gorstein”Israel’s ‘vaccine diplomacy’ is a scandal, not Michael Che’s ‘SNL’ joke”
(JTA) — “Michael Che of ‘Saturday Night Live’ made a joke last week during the show’s ‘Weekend Update’ segment saying that ‘Israel is reporting that they’ve vaccinated half of their population, and I’m gonna guess it’s the Jewish half.’
“The joke struck a nerve among some Jews, who rushed to condemn the satirical show for anti-Semitism and demanded that Che and ‘SNL’ apologize for using ‘dangerous’ and ‘anti-Semitic’ tropes against Israel, according to a petition released by the American Jewish Committee. Others, like the Anti-Defamation League and the pro-Israel group StandWithUs, released their own dismayed statements or shared AJC’s petition on their platforms. Some liberal Jewish groups, on the other hand, celebrated the joke for pointing out Israel’s systematic discrimination against the Palestinians.
“According to the AJC statement, the joke is anti-Semitic and false, since ‘every Israeli, regardless of religion or ethnicity, is eligible for the COVID vaccine, and more than two-thirds of Israel’s Arab citizens over 60 have already been vaccinated.’ The problem with this statement is that it erases the Palestinians under Israel’s occupying control in the West Bank — and misses the actual vaccine scandal unfolding.
“Palestinians living in the West Bank and Gaza may not be Israeli citizens, but they certainly qualify as part of the population under Israel’s control. Instead of working to distribute vaccines to these noncitizens living in the West Bank and Gaza, which the Fourth Geneva Conventions legally obligates Israel to do, Israel has been caught engaging in ‘vaccine diplomacy,’ promising doses to far-off foreign governments before meeting the needs of those they occupy. (cont’d)
.