With the one year anniversary of the pandemic in Palestine fast approaching, and minuscule numbers of the population getting vaccinated, the COVID-19 situation in Palestine remains bleak, and will likely continue to grow in the coming months.
A Palestinian health worker holds a vial of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine provided by Israel…
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 miniscule, that the PA said it “will not help us.”
Last week’s assurances that the first shipments of the COVID-19 vaccine would arrive in the West Bank by Sunday went unfulfilled, as the coronavirus continues to spread albeit at a slower rate.
Andrew Marr of the BBC grilled Israeli Health Minister Yuli Edelstein about why Israel is not extending its vaccination program to the Palestinian people in territories it occupies, and Edelstein said Israel has no more obligation to them than the Palestinian minister of health has to “take care of dolphins in the Mediterranean.” Yes, you heard that right.
Palestinians are expected to receive the first dose of a COVID-19 vaccines as early as this weekend, albeit a much smaller shipment than first anticipated.
Palestinian human rights organization Al-Haq is calling on the Pfizer pharmaceutical company to ensure that its COVID-19 vaccine is being used and distributed without discrimination, expressing concerns that Israel is using the company’s vaccine “to further entrench” injustices against Palestinians living under occupation.
In 1991, Israel was forced to provide gas masks to Palestinians during the Gulf War. Some are saying this is a precedent for distributing COVID-19 vaccines today.
The extended family of Asmaa Tayeh, operations manager for We Are Not Numbers, is increasingly typical of residents there. Twenty-five members of the clan have tested positive for the virus, 15 have fallen ill and three have died.
Israeli authorities are failing to provide essential information on the vaccine in Arabic, to establish vaccine centers in Palestinian neighborhoods in East Jerusalem, and to provide sufficient vaccines in Bedouin clinics in the Negev. These failures are “not a coincidence”, rights groups say.