Israel is celebrating an impressive, record-breaking vaccination project, after giving initial shots of coronavirus shots to more than a tenth of the population. But Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza occupied by Israel can only watch and wait.
As the world lifts what is already on track to become an extremely unequal vaccination pressure – with people in richer countries to be vaccinated first – the situation in Israel and the Palestinian territories provides a clear example of the gorge.
Israel transports groups of Pfizer / BioNTech vaccine deep within the West Bank. But they are distributed only to Jewish settlers, and not the approximately 2.7 million Palestinians living around them, who may have to wait for weeks or months.
“I do not know how, but there must also be a way to make us a priority?” says Mahmoud Kilani, a 31-year-old sports coach from the Palestinian city of Nablus. “Who cares about us? I think no one is holding on to the question. ”
Two weeks into its vaccination campaign, Israel is giving more than 150,000 doses a day, which equates to initial spikes for more than 1 million of its 9 million citizens – a larger portion of the population than elsewhere.
Vaccination centers have been set up in sports stadiums and central squares. People over 60, health workers, caregivers and high-risk populations are preferred, while young, healthier people who walk into clinics are sometimes rewarded with a surplus stock to avoid wastage of unused vials.
The prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, told Israelis that the country could be the first out of the pandemic. In addition to a highly advanced healthcare system, economics can be part of the reason for the speed. A health ministry official said the country paid $ 62 per dose, compared to the $ 19.50 the United States paid.
Meanwhile, the Palestinian Authority is rushing with cash, which maintains limited self-government in the territories, to get vaccinations. One official, perhaps optimistically, suggested that shots could come within the next two weeks.
However, Ali Abed Rabbo, director general of the Palestinian Ministry of Health, asked on a time frame that the first vaccines would probably arrive in February.
This would take place through a partnership led by the World Health Organization called Covax, which aims to help poorer countries, which has promised to vaccinate 20% of the Palestinians. However, vaccines intended for Covax have not yet obtained the emergency authorization from the WHO, a condition for distribution.
Gerald Rockenschaub, head of the WHO Jerusalem, said it could be ‘early to mid-2021’ before vaccines on the Covax scheme are available in the Palestinian territories.
The rest of the doses are expected to be taken by pharmaceutical companies, but so far no sign has been signed so far.
Despite the delay, the government did not officially ask for help from Israel. Coordination between the two parties was halted last year after the Palestinian president cut off security ties for several months.
But Rabbo said that ‘sessions’ were held with Israel. “Until now, there is no agreement, and we can not say that there is anything practical in this regard,” he said.
Israeli officials have suggested that they could supply excess vaccines to Palestinians, claiming they are not responsible for Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza, citing interim agreements from the 1990s that required the government to adhere to international vaccination standards.
These deals provided for a fuller peace agreement within five years, an event that never took place. Nearly three decades later, Israeli, Palestinian, and international rights groups have accused Israel of evading moral, humanitarian, and legal obligations as an occupying force during the pandemic.
Gisha, an Israeli rights group, said Palestinian efforts so far to seek vaccines “did not absolve Israel of its ultimate responsibility to Palestinians under occupation”.
The differences could possibly cause Israelis to return to some normality within the first three months of this year, while Palestinians remain trapped by the virus. This could have a negative impact on Israel’s target of herd immunity, as thousands of West Bank Palestinians work in Israel and the settlements, which could increase infection rates.
In Gaza, an impoverished enclave under an Israeli-Egyptian blockade, the time frame may be even longer than in the West Bank. The Islamic rulers of the strip, Hamas, could not contain the virus and are enemies with Israel and political rivals with the Palestinian Authority.
Salama Ma’rouf, head of the press office in Gaza, which is run by Hamas, estimated that vaccines would arrive “within two months”, adding that there was coordination with the WHO and the Palestinian Authority.
Heba Abu Asr, 35, a resident of Gaza, was shocked when asked how she felt others were getting the vaccine first. “Are you seriously trying to compare us to Israel or any other country?” she asked. “We can not find work, food or drink. We are constantly threatened. We do not even have necessities of life. ”