A man receives a COVID-19 vaccine at a health care center in Rehovot, central Israel, on January 14, 2021. Credit – Gil Cohen Magen – Xinhua News Agency / Getty Images
Israel, which has already vaccinated more than 2 million of its citizens, is increasing COVID-19 vaccines to 250,000 a day, meaning that most Israelis over 16 are about to receive two doses by the end of February .
But even as the country receives applause for the pace of global leadership in launching its vaccine, its government faces growing criticism for excluding millions of Palestinians from the program.
About 75% of citizens over the age of 60 have been vaccinated so far, including Palestinian citizens (or “Arab Israelis”) from Israel and occupied East Jerusalem, and Israelis living in illegal settlements in the West Bank.
Not included, however, are more than 4.5 million Palestinians living under Israel’s direct or indirect military control in the West Bank and Gaza. Gerard Rockenshlaub, head of the World Health Organization’s Office for the Occupied Palestinian Territory, told TIME on January 13 that “unequal access to essential vaccines is hardly as visible anywhere as it is in this specific context”.
Israel has a “duty” to vaccinate Palestinians, the Palestinian Authority said in a statement released on January 10. Failure to do so constitutes “racial discrimination against the Palestinian people and a denial of their right to health”.
In a declaration of January 14, the United Nations human rights body also asked Israel to ensure rapid and equitable access to the COVID-19 vaccine for the Palestinian people, in accordance with its responsibilities as an occupying power under the UN Convention. Geneva.
The successful launch of vaccination in Israel can be credited to a combination of its small size, its strong public health system and its early acquisition of vaccines. But critics also point to the fact that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu – who faces a criminal trial on three criminal charges and months of protests over his handling of the economy – is in dire need of a political victory before a fourth unprecedented election in two years scheduled to take place in March.
Here’s what you should know about Israel’s vaccination program and how its reputation – and effectiveness – could be undone if Palestinians were not vaccinated, either:
Why was the implementation of vaccination in Israel so successful?
As of January 14, more than 20% of Israeli citizens had been shot. The United Arab Emirates came next, with around 10% of its population, while the United Kingdom, the USA and Denmark were around 2%. Countries hesitant about vaccination, such as France, where research indicates that only 40% of people intend to receive the vaccine, are far behind.
Vaccine hesitation based on misinformation and conspiracy theories was also a problem in Israel. But the Ministry of Health’s multi-channel public information campaign – including Netanyahu receiving the country’s first chance on live television – and outreach to minority community leaders, such as ultra-Orthodox rabbis, helped to build consensus, says the chief medical officer. of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) Colonel Dr. Tomer Koler. “In the end, I think that all groups will get vaccinated because they want to,” he tells TIME.
Collaboration between the military and Israel’s strong public health system is another factor in the efficiency of Israel’s COVID-19 response, said Koler. “The IDF and the medical staff and the command of the home front are intertwined with civilian life in Israel,” he says, adding that the IDF has summoned and trained 700 reserve doctors to support government-funded health providers with the program. Israel’s small geographic size – slightly larger than New Jersey on the pre-1967 borders – also helps to transport the Pfizer photo, which must be kept at minus 75 degrees Celsius (about minus 103 degrees Fahrenheit).
How did Israel get so many vaccines so quickly?
This is due to an agreement the Israeli government struck with US pharmaceutical giant Pfizer, Netanyahu revealed on Jan. 7. Under the agreement, Israel receives 10 million doses of the BioNtech-Pfizer vaccine in exchange for sharing anonymous biometric data about who receives them and how. affects them, Political reports. Israel’s public broadcaster also reported that its government paid more than other countries for the BioNtech-Pfizer and Moderna vaccines – at an average of $ 47 per person for the two-dose inoculation. The Washington Post reported in December that the United States paid Pfizer / BioNTech $ 19.50 per dose, while the EU paid $ 14.76.
Despite Israel’s economic problems, the reported premium attracted little resistance. “It might have been more expensive, but it was worth paying,” says lawmaker Nitzan Horowitz, leader of Israel’s left-wing Meretz party, “I think it’s something we all agree on.” Where Horowitz disagrees, it is Israel’s responsibilities: vaccinating Palestinians in the West Bank after Israelis is “our moral obligation,” he says. The Israeli human rights organization Rabbis for Human Rights also argued that Israel has a “moral imperative” to vaccinate Palestinians, especially in Gaza.
Is Israel responsible for vaccinating Palestinians?
According to the UN, yes. Israel first occupied the West Bank and Gaza during the war with its Arab neighbors in 1967. Its soldiers withdrew from the Gaza Strip in 2005 – which since 2007 has been governed by the militant group Hamas – but continues to control the movement of goods in and outside the territory by means of an air, land and sea blockade.
When the inhabitants of Gaza were totally confined this summer, for example, Israel restricted fuel supplies in response to the rocket attacks that Hamas launched against Israel. This amounts to “collective punishment” for the Palestinians, says Miriam Marmur, a spokesman for the Tel Aviv-based human rights group Gisha, “which plunges people into darkness most of the day.”
Some commentators – and the coordinator of Israeli government activities in the occupied Palestinian territories, COGAT – have argued that Israel is not responsible for the health of the Palestinians because the Oslo Accords, the historic agreements that Israel signed with the Palestinian Liberation Authority in the early years 1990, give oversight of public health by the Palestinian Authority under the principles of self-determination.
“It is important to mention that Israel has not denied any requests for medical assistance that have arrived at its door,” a COGAT spokesman told Al Jazeera for a story published on January 13. Until their public statement on the matter on January 10, Palestinian officials made contradictory statements about whether they asked Israel for vaccines or not.
But Israeli officials who cite the Oslo agreements are an example of how they do it “when it suits them,” said Marmur. “In reality, Israel has undermined the ability of the Palestinian Authority and also de facto Hamas authorities in Gaza to assume full health responsibilities, as provided for in the Oslo agreement.” UN human rights experts say the Oslo Accords must be “interpreted and applied in a manner consistent with international law and cannot derogate from their broad protections”, according to the OCHA statement of 14 January.
The exclusion of Palestinians from Israel’s vaccination program is “a reflection of an apartheid system,” said Dr. Mustafa Al Barghtoy, a physician and former Palestinian minister who serves on the Palestinian health committee dealing with COVID-19. The injustice is emphasized by the fact that hundreds of thousands of Israeli settlers are eligible to receive the vaccine, he says, while their Palestinian neighbors are not. In the meantime, Israel will vaccinate prison guards, but not the Palestinian political prisoners they oversee, he added.
How urgent is the need for vaccines in the Palestinian territories?
In total, more than 160,000 Palestinians in the occupied territories have tested positive for the coronavirus since March 2020, with more than 1,700 COVID-19-related deaths, according to the UN figures. But those numbers may not tell the whole story: among those who are tested, the infection rate in the occupied territories is 30%, compared to 7.4% in Israel, says Barghtoy.
Many feared that COVID would especially devastate the Gaza Strip – one of the most densely populated areas in the world, with an ill-equipped health system. As of January 14, the Gaza health ministry has reported nearly 47,000 cases and 464 deaths due to the virus. That is an alarming figure, but still lower per capita than the more than half a million cases reported by the Israeli Ministry of Health on 12 January.
The impact was partly mitigated by the “tremendous” efforts of the international community to strengthen Gaza’s health system, says WHO’s Rockenschaub. This includes substantially increasing the capacity of the band’s intensive care unit and mobilizing vital supplies such as oxygen and ventilators. Still, vaccination is an urgent concern. “The sooner we can move forward in vaccinating and protecting essential health professionals, the better,” he says, “because we see a very significant number of health professionals being infected.”
Before the Palestinian Authority formally said that Israel is responsible for vaccinating Palestinians, WHO had informally asked Israel to provide vaccines to inoculate Palestinian frontline health workers. Israel denied the request based on a shortage of vaccines for its own citizens.
Can Israel obtain collective immunity without inoculating Palestinians?
With IDFs moving through the West Bank and around 130,000 Palestinians working in the settlements or in Israel, not making the vaccine available is “counterproductive” in terms of obtaining collective immunity, says Barghotoy.
The Palestinian Authority has made efforts to import vaccines independently of Israel. On January 11, his health ministry announced that it had given emergency approval for the Russian Sputnik V Covid-19 vaccine for use in areas it administers under limited Palestinian self-government; it also claims to have closed an agreement with AstraZeneca for vaccines that it expects to receive at the end of February. In addition, the first shipment of vaccines under the WHO COVAX program may be available as early as February.
Over the next few weeks, at least, they will be forced to wait. “Our main concern is really that we can only overcome this pandemic in solidarity and in a spirit of collaboration,” says Rockenschaub, “either we will succeed together or we will fail together.”