RAMALLAH, West Bank – The vast majority of Palestinians living in the occupied territories have yet to be vaccinated against the coronavirus, prompting a heated debate over whether Israel has a duty to vaccinate Palestinians living under Israeli occupation.
But among Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, questions are now being asked about their own leadership, which is accused of purifying and distributing some of the few doses allocated to Palestinians among the senior members of the ruling party, allies in the media and even to family members of top dignitaries.
Like many governments worldwide, the Palestinian Authority, which exercises limited control over parts of the occupied territories, has officially prioritized its senior administrative leadership and frontline health workers, as well as people who regularly come in contact with the president and prime minister.
But secretly, the authority diverted the thousands of vaccines it received to some senior members of the ruling West Bank party who have no formal role in government, according to two senior Palestinian officials and a senior official of the party. , Fatah, who all spoke on condition of anonymity.
According to one of the senior Palestinian officials and two employees at the stores, vaccines were also secretly given to top figures at the major newsrooms. Relatives of certain government officials and Fatah leaders also received the vaccines, the senior official and a former government official said.
Ordinary Palestinians are already frustrated by their exclusion from Israel’s leading vaccination program, and now accuse their leaders of hoarding some of the relatively few vaccines the government has obtained, even amid an increase in infections and tightened restrictions.
“It is, of course, understandable and acceptable that the president, prime minister and ministers should take the vaccination before others – this is the case all over the world,” said Hasan Ayoub, chair of the political science department at An Najah University. Nablus, said. “But there is absolutely no justification for giving the very small vaccines we have to other people close to power at the expense of those who need it most.”
Several government officials did not respond to requests for comment on the allegations.
In public statements, the Ministry of Health did not acknowledge any wrongdoing. It acknowledged that they had received 12,000 vaccines – 10,000 from Russia and 2,000 from Israel. It says that 2,000 were sent to the Gaza Strip, which is under the de facto authority of Hamas, the militant group, and 200 to the royal court in Jordan, where some Palestinian leaders live. And of the remaining 9,800, 90 percent was given to health workers on the front line, the ministry said in a statement Tuesday.
The ministry said the rest was given to officials in the presidency and prime ministry; election officials; some international embassies; and members of the national football team as well as about 100 students who need the vaccine to travel.
But the ministry’s explanation apparently convinced few people. The ministry’s own statements also contain inconsistencies – one mentions the vaccines sent to Jordan, while another omits the details without explaining why.
Jehad Harb, a senior researcher at AMAN, a Palestinian anti-corruption organization, quoted the government in a column as saying that the distribution of doses to dubious groups contributes to other degenerates in the government’s fight against the coronavirus.
“This government must leave its headquarters and prime minister because it has filled the country with failure,” he wrote.
On Monday, several Palestinian civil society groups voiced joint criticism of the government, demanding that it set up an inquiry committee to investigate the matter and publish the names and workplaces of those who received vaccinations.
Even if the government distributed the vaccines according to strict criteria, the vast majority of Palestinians would still be forced to wait.
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“This is the biggest problem,” he said. Ayoub said. “The vaccines we have are not even enough to cover the highest priority groups.”
World Health Organization officials said they expected Palestinians to receive 37,440 doses of Pfizer-BioNTech and 168,000 doses of AstraZeneca over the next three months. Palestinian officials in the West Bank have said a larger order of 2 million AstraZeneca vaccines has been delayed due to global competition and logistical complications, but they said they hope for the first shipment in the coming weeks.
Health officials in Gaza said they had received 20,000 doses from the United Arab Emirates and 2,000 doses from the Palestinian Authority.
The public outcry over the distribution of government vaccines has followed weeks of criticism of Israel, while human rights groups and others have said the country is responsible for vaccinating Palestinians living under Israeli occupation.
The rights groups say Israel has a duty to provide Palestinians with the same access to vaccinations that its own citizens receive, citing international law that sets out the responsibilities of occupying forces. But supporters of Israel’s policy argue that the Palestinians are responsible for their own health services, including vaccination programs, citing the Oslo Accords signed in the 1990s.
On Sunday, Israel took its first step in providing a significant number of vaccinations to Palestinians in the West Bank that are likely to come into contact with Israelis: Authorities announced that Israeli medical teams plan to vaccinate more than 100,000 Palestinian workers, with the permission to work in Israel. or in Israeli settlements in the West Bank.
Once the doses are distributed, the vast majority of Palestinian adults will still be without vaccinations.