Israel has led the world to rapidly vaccinate a large part of its population, so naturally the global left must find fault: hence the effort to condemn Jerusalem for not taking responsibility for vaccinations in Gaza and the West Bank.
In a series of tweets, Human Rights Watch chief executive Kenneth Roth accused Israel of racism for the alleged failure; a week later, Palestinian officials decided to join the guilt game, announcing that Israel is responsible for vaccinating Palestinians, despite statements to the contrary in the past.
In reality, as Hillel Neuer notes of the UN Watch, The Oslo II Agreement of 1995 designates the responsibility for the health care and vaccination of its people to the Palestinian Authority.
And while the two countries should cooperate in managing the epidemics, Palestinian health ministry officials acknowledged in December that they had not asked for help to get vaccines from Israel.
Senior Palestinian officials routinely go to Israel for major medical care, but PA propaganda discourages it for everyone else, with dark indications that Jewish doctors will provide only inferior care to Arabs – unless they secretly experience Palestinian patients.
The AP has closed its own bids to purchase AstraZeneca and Sputnik V vaccines from Russia, although the first began arriving this month. He did not even make any official (embarrassing) request for Jerusalem to help. (World Health Organization officials only cite “informal discussions” if they have made such a request.)
Remember that Israel vaccinates its Arab citizens. Indeed, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu even visited Arab areas to encourage the vagueness. Many Israeli Arabs in East Jerusalem have done so.
And Jerusalem is also beating Palestinian terrorists imprisoned on a priority basis in front of many citizens – even though PA propaganda suggests that the program is really about conducting medical experiments. But the enemy of NGOs and the United Nations is as it always is, Israel, no matter what.