Palestinians will kick off their national vaccination campaign Sunday, offering long-awaited jabs to the general public for the first time following the arrival of does from the GAVI Alliance and COVAX, a vaccine-sharing program. Allison Deger unpacks the supply chain that brings the essential vaccines across the globe, and through Israeli checkpoints, into the arms of Palestinians.
We’re excited to announce our first book club event! Register now for a live reading and Q&A with “You Exist Too Much” author Zaina Arafat over Zoom on Thursday March 4.
Over the past week the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases continued to increase in both the West Bank and Gaza, further entrenching November’s trend of a rising second wave.
This week the advocacy group Visualizing Palestine launched Today, Palestine, a digital storytelling platform with an interactive map designed by Palestine Open Maps, the first open-source and searchable and detailed map of the British Mandate of Palestine
Ramadan is underway in the tightly packed Gaza Strip. Officials have eased some restrictions on social distancing allowing Palestinians a reprieve from isolation to buy sweets and gifts to celebrate the Islamic holy month.
Dr. Tarek Loubani is using 3D printing to produce PPE for frontline workers in both Gaza and North America.
According to the World Health Organization there is a total of 175,883 confirmed cases of COVID-19 and 7,273 known deaths in the 22 countries that make up the eastern Mediterranean region.
“People are thinking about what would mama make?” chef Joudie Kalla tells Mondoweiss’s Allison Deger. Kalla shares her recipe for kufta bil tahineh, and explains what she’s cooking while stuck at home.
Allison Deger talks with Safwan Fayyad, a 30-year-old senior resident and internist at the Ramallah Medical Complex, about being on the front lines against the coronavirus in the West Bank. “Until now we are keeping pace with the patient load,” Fayyad says, “but if we face a serious outbreak where a majority of people would get sick that would be a disaster here.”
Palestinians have entered the third week of lockdown across the West Bank and Gaza as measures to slow the transmission of the coronavirus continue. With schools and businesses closed across the region, many families are choosing to self-isolate at home.