Alongside the catastrophe in Gaza, another crisis is unfolding in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, where the Israeli military has launched land incursions, conducted airstrikes, restricted access to resources, and targeted health infrastructure.

Data collection for Covid-19 rates in Palestine has continued to be challenging and contradictory; numbers out of East Jerusalem have been intermittently available “from local sources,” once again highlighting the differences in public health for East Jerusalemites versus the population in ’48 Israel. Occupied Palestinians, even those with residency permits, lack well-resourced, well-organized health and public health systems focused on their needs.

Gaza continues to be at a major disadvantage in the pandemic due to the borderline functioning of the health care system after years of siege and repeated Israeli assaults and exhausted medical personnel. According to the World Health Organizations, 61.7% of the target population is fully vaccinated in the West Bank, 32.3% fully vaccinated in Gaza. The rate in Israel is 66 percent.

The Jewish Voice for Peace Health Advisory Council (JVP HAC) fully endorses the recent report by Amnesty International (AI) on “Israel’s Apartheid Against Palestinians.” JVP HAC says, “Growing consensus on a state of apartheid and international pressure on Israel to cease violations of international law can greatly improve the health status and well-being of Palestinians… Preventable illness and suffering, limited access to health services, and physical and mental trauma among Palestinians are clearly related to conditions of life under occupation and violence perpetrated by Israeli government, military, police, and settlers.”

The Israeli spyware firm NSO Group was blacklisted by Biden administration because foreign governments were using its products to surveil academics, journalists and human rights activists. A top Israeli defense official has said that Israel encouraged the exports because they served the national interest. At a closed conference the official said, “We should have defended NSO rather than caving to the Americans.” –From the media watch by JVP’s Health Advisory Council.

Given the infectiousness of Omicron, we can expect a major spike in infection rates, if not rates of severe disease, in the occupied Palestinian territories. Though according to the WHO, 27 Palestinians died of coronavirus in the past week, a downward trend since the most recent rise at the end of December and much lower than earlier peaks.

Covid-19 cases and positivity rates are rising in the occupied Palestinian territories, mostly from travelers who returned from abroad. Cases in Gaza are leading, and an increasing threat to the health care systems and hospitals is looming on the horizon, Jewish Voice for Peace’s Health Advisory Council reports.

Anthony Fauci has been awarded a $1 million Israeli prize to be given in May. Jewish Voice for Peace Health Advisory Council doubts he would have been an apologist for South African apartheid. “We urge you to decline the prize and to respect the call for a cultural boycott of Israeli institutions. This call was issued by Palestinians who are most affected by Israeli policy.”

Health professionals urge Dr. Anthony Fauci to use some of his $1 million prize from an Israeli foundation to “send a powerful message” of vaccination equity and buy vaccines for Palestinians under occupation, whom Israel has refused to take responsibility for.

The JVP Health Advisory Council calls on Israel to assume its responsibility to distribute vaccines to Palestinians in the occupied territory: “As health workers, it would be a violation of our professional ethics to stand by in silence as this form of discrimination occurs.”