The rollout of the COVID-19 vaccine perfectly illustrates Israel’s apartheid system. While Palestinians living under Israeli occupation in the West Bank and Gaza will not receive vaccines from the Israeli government, the hundreds of thousands of Israeli settlers living illegally in the West Bank are getting vaccinated every day.

In the city of Bethlehem, the birthplace of Jesus Christ, Christmas is the biggest day of the year. The holiday typically draws thousands of Palestinians and foreigners alike to the city, which adorns its streets and churches in beautiful lights and decorations for the season. But this year, COVID-19 has changed all of that. Manger Square and the Church of Nativity have been emptied of their usual visitors, and Palestinian Christian families have been forced to spend their most precious day of the year under lockdown.

Earlier this week residents of Hebron staged protests against the Palestinian Authority (PA) over renewed COVID-19 lockdowns across the West Bank, sparking clashes and confrontations between armed civilians and PA security forces.

With less than a month left in office for President Trump, the current US administration is working hard and fast to secure more normalization deals in the region.

Ayman Abu Alia remembers his son, Ali, who was killed by Israeli snipers on his 15th birthday. “In the past few days, I have seen all the young men and boys in the village stand with us, and it makes me feel like Ali is still standing here with us,” Abu Alia tells Mondoweiss, “He’s still here, brave, and standing up for his people and his land. That’s how I will remember my son.”

Due to the rising numbers, the government announced a full-scale one week closure in select districts of the West Bank.

The cash-strapped Palestinian Authority (PA) finally accepted over $1 billion in tax revenues, transferred by Israel on Tuesday. While Israel has refused to release the tax revenues in the past, the PA itself had been refusing to accept the money since May of this year, in protest of Israel’s annexation plans and US President Donald Trump’s “deal of the century.”

Palestine saw the highest rate of daily infections of the coronavirus since the beginning of the pandemic in the past 24 hours, following the first weekend of newly imposed lockdowns in the West Bank.

Palestinians, like many other people around the globe, have largely settled into a new reality, accepting COVID-19 as an unfortunate reality, but a reality they must live with nonetheless. That is, until this week.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reportedly traveled to Saudi Arabia on Sunday night for a secret meeting with the Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman and US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.