The spokesperson for United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres was asked on February 24th to comment regarding Saturday Night Live’s anti-Semitic “joke.” Israel’s claim to have vaccinated half of its population meant only its “Jewish half,” the SNL cast member snarked. The spokesperson replied, “It's not for me to get into.”
The Secretary General likes to talk abstractly about the evils of anti-Semitism. But when asked about a specific example of an anti-Semitic comment that was broadcast widely on television, his spokesperson refused to denounce it. Instead, he criticized Israel. The spokesperson said that “we have called from here for Israel to do greater cooperation with the Palestinian Authorities in line with its obligations to ensure that the vaccine gets to the population… the Palestinian population in the Occupied Palestinian Territory.”
In addition, the Palestinians expect to receive vaccines through COVAX, the UN-backed global mechanism established to ensure equitable vaccine access worldwide
The Secretary General’s spokesperson ignored the fact that Israel’s vaccination program extended to its Arab and other non-Jewish citizens, as well as Palestinians in East Jerusalem who have Israeli residency status. Moreover, Israel has authorized the transfer of thousands of doses from its coronavirus vaccine supply to Palestinian frontline health workers and has promised that more will be coming. Israel is also considering a plan to vaccinate 100,000 Palestinian workers employed in Israel.
Israel has indicated that it will cooperate with Palestinian government officials in facilitating the transfer of millions of doses of vaccines that the Palestinian Authority is ordering through its own bilateral arrangements from vaccine makers. According to BBC, “The Palestinian Ministry of Health - which operates in the West Bank - said in a statement that they have deals with four companies that will provide enough vaccines for 70% of its people.” Thousands of Russian made vaccine doses have already arrived. Officials and health workers in Gaza began receiving inoculations on February 22nd. The Palestinian Authority started its vaccination campaign on February 2nd.
In addition, the Palestinians expect to receive vaccines through COVAX, the UN-backed global mechanism established to ensure equitable vaccine access worldwide. “We’re going to get 20% of our vaccines for free, from Covax. We’ve signed an agreement with them, guaranteeing it, and everything’s in order,” Palestinian Authority Health Minister Mai al-Kaila said in an interview with Palestine TV last December. As reported by BBC, “Covax has said that the West Bank and Gaza would get an initial 240,000 doses of AstraZeneca vaccine, and 37,440 doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, with some of this expected to arrive in late February.”
Last December, officials with the Palestinian Authority Ministry of Health admitted that the Palestinians had not asked Israel to supply the Palestinians with vaccines. “We are working on our own to obtain the vaccine from a number of sources,” one of the officials said. “We are not a department in the Israeli Defense Ministry. We have our own government and Ministry of Health, and they are making huge efforts to get the vaccine.”
“Israel has no legal responsibility to donate vaccinations, or vaccinate, Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza”
Nevertheless, in their typical blame-shifting fashion, Palestinian leaders and their enablers, including at the United Nations, are slandering Israel. They have claimed falsely that Israel is violating “international law” as a so-called “occupying power” by not equitably sharing its own purchased supply of vaccine doses with the Palestinians living in the so-called “occupied territories.” The Palestinian Authority added that Israel was guilty of “racism.” All of this is sheer propaganda, designed to relieve the Palestinians of their primary health care responsibility under the Oslo Accords, including the responsibility for vaccinating their own population.
“Israel has no legal responsibility to donate vaccinations, or vaccinate, Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza,” Joel Singer, an Israeli attorney who drafted much of the Oslo agreements, was quoted by Forward as saying in a recent interview. “This is not just something that I’m inferring — it’s written there.”
The Oslo Accords do stipulate that "Israel and the Palestinian side shall exchange information regarding epidemics and contagious diseases, shall co-operate in combating them and shall develop methods for [the] exchange of medical files and documents." Israel has exceeded its obligations under this provision. Palestinians residing in East Jerusalem are being vaccinated, as are medics working at the six Palestinian hospitals there even if they live in the West Bank or Gaza. Israel has provided some of its own vaccine supply to the Palestinians, as noted above, and has permitted the transfer of vaccines procured by the Palestinians themselves into Gaza and the West Bank.
Palestinian leaders and their advocates claim that Article 56 of the Fourth Geneva Convention requires Israel, as a so-called “occupying power,” to ensure that the Palestinians residing in all the so-called “occupied territories” are vaccinated.
Israel does not concede that the territories Israelis and Palestinians are disputing are “occupied.” In any event, Palestinians residing in East Jerusalem are provided the opportunity to receive the vaccines Israel is furnishing to Israeli citizens. Arab as well as Jewish Israeli citizens are also entitled to receive vaccinations from Israel's supply. As for Gaza, Israel withdrew its troops from there in 2005. Israeli settlers abandoned their homes in Gaza that same year. Gaza is under the control of Hamas, not Israel. There is no Israeli occupation of Gaza under any stretch of the imagination. Nevertheless, despite Hamas’s use of Gaza as a base to launch rockets into population centers inside Israel, Israel has permitted vaccines procured by the Palestinians to be imported into Gaza without interference.
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The World Bank reported recently that the Palestinians’ Covid-19 vaccination plan faces a $30 million funding shortfall
Even if, for the sake of argument, the Geneva Convention provision were deemed to apply to both the West Bank and Gaza, the Palestinians have waived any purported rights they might have had under Article 56 to require Israel to provide vaccinations to all eligible Palestinians living in the West Bank or Gaza. They did so by agreeing to take on this responsibility themselves under the Oslo Accords. Recall that a Palestinian Authority Ministry of Health official recently affirmed the Palestinians’ acceptance of this responsibility when he said, “We have our own government and Ministry of Health and they are making huge efforts to get the vaccine.”
The World Bank reported recently that the Palestinians’ Covid-19 vaccination plan faces a $30 million funding shortfall, even after taking account of what the Palestinians expect to receive from the UN-backed COVAX program. But blame for the shortfall lies with the Palestinians themselves. The Palestinian Authority squandered at least $159 million in 2020 on supporting terrorist prisoners and families of dead terrorists, according to Palestinian Media Watch, which examined the Palestinian Authority’s financial reports. That is more than 5 times what the World Bank reported as a shortfall in funding the Palestinians’ Covid-19 vaccination plan. The Palestinians decided that it is far more important to send money to terrorists and their families than on saving the money to purchase enough vaccines to adequately inoculate their own people.
The Palestinian Authority’s perverted priorities say it all! They have failed to fulfill their health care responsibilities for the Palestinian people. The United Nations should ensure that its COVAX program increases the amount of vaccine doses delivered to the Palestinians on an accelerated timetable, rather than blame Israel.
The spokesperson for United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres was asked on February 24th to comment regarding Saturday Night Live’s anti-Semitic “joke.” Israel’s claim to have vaccinated half of its population meant only its “Jewish half,” the SNL cast member snarked. The spokesperson replied, “It's not for me to get into.”
The Secretary General likes to talk abstractly about the evils of anti-Semitism. But when asked about a specific example of an anti-Semitic comment that was broadcast widely on television, his spokesperson refused to denounce it. Instead, he criticized Israel. The spokesperson said that “we have called from here for Israel to do greater cooperation with the Palestinian Authorities in line with its obligations to ensure that the vaccine gets to the population… the Palestinian population in the Occupied Palestinian Territory.”
