Crossing COVID chasm between Israel and Palestinians
While Israeli-Palestinian Businessman Ismail Daiq, 62, has already had his second vaccine shot, his siblings and 95-year-old mother from the West Bank are still awaiting a vaccine rollout that has only gone underway in PA
Reuters |
Published: 02.03.21 , 20:28
As a Palestinian living in Jerusalem, Ismail Daiq is used to negotiating the dividing lines between communities: the daily commute to his Jordan Valley date farm involves crossing a checkpoint on his way home.
Now the coronavirus pandemic has created another faultline for him to navigate: the stark difference between access to vaccines in Israel and in the Palestinian territories.
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GAZA (Reuters) - The Palestinian Authority said on Sunday it expects to receive its first COVID-19 vaccine doses in March under a deal with drugmaker AstraZeneca, and accused Israel of shirking a duty to ensure vaccines are available in occupied territory.
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While Israel has already become the world leader in vaccinations per capita, Palestinians in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and the Gaza Strip have yet to secure their first supplies.
Yasser Bozyeh, the Palestinian general director of public health, told Reuters that in addition to reaching an agreement in principle with AstraZeneca, the Palestinians had also sought supplies from Moderna, Johnson & Johnson and Russia, which has developed the Sputnik V vaccine.
Palestinian minor killed at protest labelled a “war crime”
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Palestinian minor Ali Ayman Nasr Abu Aliya has been killed by Israeli forces as he stood on the outskirts of a clash in al-Mughayyir village near Ramallah on 4 December.
The 15-year-old “succumbed to his wounds after he was shot with live rounds in the stomach”, according to the Palestinian health ministry. The ministry statement said Abu Aliya was taken in a critical condition to receive emergency treatment at a hospital in Ramallah, where he later died.
Palestinian officialls have slammed the killing as a war crime and the European Union Delegation to the Palestinians has called for an investigation into the incident.
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The Palestinian Prime Minister accuses Israel of racist policies due to the vaccination campaign it is conducting among the settler population in Judea and Samaria, while allegedly discriminating against the Palestinians.
“We condemn the racism of the occupation which prides itself on the rapid vaccination operation for its citizens while ignoring the legal responsibility to provide vaccination to the occupied people,” said Mohammad Shtayyeh at a cabinet meeting last Monday, adding that Israel’s duty to vaccinate PA residents stems from international humanitarian law, the Geneva Convention and the Hague Regulations of 1907, and the International Human Rights Act.