JERUSALEM (AP) – Israel paid Russia $ 1.2 million to supply coronavirus vaccines to the Syrian government as part of a deal that secured the release of an Israeli woman detained in Damascus, according to the Israeli media reports Sunday.
The terms of the clandestine compromise orchestrated by Moscow between the two countries have remained unclear. But the fact that Israel is supplying vaccines to Syria – a hostile country that offers hostile Iranian forces – has drawn criticism at home and stands in opposition to Israel’s refusal to provide significant amounts of vaccinations to Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Saturday that “not a single Israeli vaccine” was involved in the deal. He declined to comment on whether Israel paid for Russian vaccines, saying Russia maintains the details of the exchange remain secret.
Netanyahu’s office declined to comment, and many details of the deal remain censored.
Labor leader Merav Michaeli called on the Knesset’s Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee to discuss the agreement and Netanyahu’s ‘political, inappropriate use of censorship’.
“Why do Israeli citizens constantly have to learn about things from foreign media that their prime minister hides from them?” she said on Israel’s Kan radio on Sunday.
Israel announced on Friday that it had reached a Russian mediation agreement to bring home a young woman who had crossed over to neighboring Syria earlier this month. In return, Israel said it had released two Syrian shepherds entering Israeli territory.
Netanyahu boasted that his warm ties with Russian President Vladimir Putin had helped clinch the deal. His office made no mention of any agreement to pay for vaccinations for Syria.
According to Israeli reports, Israel paid for an unknown number of doses of Sputnik V vaccine. The Russian Direct Investment Fund, which financed the development of Sputnik V, said in November that it would cost less than $ 10 per dose internationally.
The Syrian state news agency denied that the agreement existed.
The released 25-year-old Israeli woman returned to Israel via Moscow and was questioned by the Israeli Internal Security Agency. She hails from the predominantly ultra-Orthodox settlement of Modiin Illit on the West Bank and had earlier, according to Israeli media, tried to cross Israel’s borders with the Gaza Strip and Jordan.
The woman allegedly crossed from the Golan Heights into Syrian territory, which captured Israel in the Middle East war in 1967 and was annexed in 1981, which is not widely recognized internationally. Her identity and motivation to move to Syria were not disclosed by Israeli officials.
Gideon Saar, a former Netanyahu ally who wants to expel him in the upcoming Israeli election, said on Sunday that the government’s censorship of something that Damascus and Moscow know, and Israeli citizens do not, is incomprehensible. “
Israel and Syria remain in an official state of war and Israeli citizens are officially banned from visiting Syria.
Israel’s arch-enemy Iran has sent troops to support Syrian President Bashar Assad against rebel groups. Israel considers Iranian defense at the northern border a red line and has suspected hundreds of airstrikes on facilities linked to Iran and weapons convoys destined for the Iranian-backed Hezbollah militant group.
Israel has provided humanitarian aid to non-Assad groups and provided medical treatment to thousands of Syrians who have reached the Golan Heights border.
Netanyahu’s agreed-upon agreement to pay for vaccines to a hostile country contrasts with his refusal to supply large quantities of vaccines to Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza, and shouts from human rights organizations.
The differences between Israel’s successful vaccination and its own population and the Palestinians have drawn criticism from UN officials and rights groups, highlighting the inequalities between rich and poor countries gaining access to vaccines.
These groups argue that Israel is responsible for vaccinating the Palestinians, while Israel has argued that it is not responsible for vaccinating them and that the internationally backed Palestinian Authority should be responsible for vaccinating its own population under interim peace agreements. Israel’s vaccination campaign included its own Arab population.
The Palestinian Authority has not publicly asked for Israeli help, saying it only obtains vaccines and through a World Health Organization for poorer countries. But earlier this month, Israel agreed to share 2,000 vaccinations with the Palestinians to vaccinate medical workers in the West Bank.
Ahmad Tibi, a lawmaker at the joint list of Arab parties in the Israeli Knesset, wrote on Twitter on Friday: “Should we wait for a Jewish person to cross the border with Gaza so that they deserve vaccinations?”