JERUSALEM – The Israeli government on Sunday approved a measure to vaccinate tens of thousands of Palestinian workers, after receiving harsh criticism over the small number of vaccinations it has given to Palestinians living under its military occupation.
Israeli medical teams will soon begin vaccinating Palestinians working in Israel or in settlements in the occupied West Bank, according to a statement by the coordinator of government activities in the territories, the Ministry of Defense responsible for liaison with the Palestinians. .
There are about 80,000 Palestinians who have workers in Israel, and about 30,000 people who have jobs in the settlements. Most are construction workers, but some have jobs on farms or in factories, shops, restaurants and other workplaces.
The tens of thousands of Palestinians working in Israel without official documents are not eligible.
For weeks, there has been a heated debate over whether Israel bears responsibility for the health of Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and the blocked Gaza Strip. Human rights groups have argued that international law requires Israel to give Palestinians the same access to vaccines that its own citizens receive. But proponents of Israel’s policies argued that the Palestinians were taking responsibility for health services when they signed the Oslo Accords in the 1990s.
According to Palestinian officials, as of Sunday, the Palestinian Authority has received 2,000 doses from Israel and 10,000 from Russia. Israel has set the number of doses he has sent at 2,200 and promises to hand over another 3,000.
The Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip obtained 20,000 doses from the United Arab Emirates and 2,000 from the Russian consignment to the Palestinian Authority.