Note: The views and opinions expressed in blog/editorial posts are those of the author. They do not purport to reflect the views or opinions of Misbar.
Not only has the COVID-19 pandemic exposed global inequality, but it has also exposed discriminatory medical practices, the latter of which has starkly presented itself in vaccinations between Israelis and Palestinians. Although a significant feat during the pandemic, Israel’s achievement as the world leader in the provision of vaccinations per capita excludes the five million Palestinians living on occupied territory.
Israel currently holds the highest number of vaccines per person with a rate of 11.5 vaccines per person. It has already administered more than a quarter of its nation with the COVID-19 vaccine. 150,000 vaccines are being administered in the nation per day, with several advantageous factors at play, such as being a relatively small country geographically and having a highly advanced healthcare system.
The COVID-19 vaccine roll-out plan, however, only includes citizens of Israel – which also includes Israeli settlers living inside the West Bank on illegal settlements – and Palestinian residents of East Jerusalem. It simultaneously excludes the nearly 5 million Palestinians who live in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.
On January 16, the Jerusalem Post published an article that claimed that “Israel has no obligation to give Palestinians vaccines,” based on the notion that Israel is not an occupying power. However, in terms of eleven UN resolutions, the most recent being Resolution 2336 of 2016, Israel is recognized as an occupying power over Palestinian territories. Resolution 2336, which was unanimously passed by 14 voting countries, states the following:
As an occupying power, Israel is under an international obligation to provide its occupants with vaccines. The Fourth Geneva convention names Palestinians “protected persons” under occupation. Article 56 states that such an occupying power must ensure and maintain “the medical and hospital establishments and services, public health and hygiene in the occupied territory, with particular reference to the adoption and application of the prophylactic and preventive measures necessary to combat the spread of contagious diseases and epidemics.”
Israeli officials have also claimed that they are not responsible for Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza, citing the Oslo accords that place responsibility on the Palestinian Authority (PA) to maintain international vaccination standards. This follows claims by successive Israeli governments that the Fourth Geneva Convention does not apply to the West Bank or the Gaza Strip. However, under international law, a country cannot resign from its duties under the Geneva Conventions, even if another agreement was signed with a country/territory. It is considered the minimum requirements obliged of a state to uphold these duties, so much so that it has become customary law due to its universal recognition. As such, the Oslo accords do not supersede international humanitarian law. This means that they do not imply absolution of Israel’s obligations to provide vaccinations during a pandemic to the people in the land that it occupies.
Currently, the PA is unable to vaccinate its population due to its dilapidated health care infrastructure mainly related to restrictions in the Occupied Territories imposed by Israel and its military. Gisha, an Israeli rights group, stated that cooperation between Palestinian authorities and the international community “does not absolve Israel from its ultimate responsibility toward Palestinians under occupation.” The exclusion of Palestinians under occupation from the vaccination drive violates international humanitarian law as well as their right to health under the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
Amnesty International has stated that “the Israeli government must uphold its obligations as the occupying power, under international humanitarian law and human rights law, to provide the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health to the population of the [Occupied Palestinian Territories] without discrimination.” One might argue that Palestinians in the West Bank do not form part of the Israeli population. However, the West Bank is already run through military occupation in what Palestinian officials have dubbed a de facto annexation of the region, leaving its inhabitants effectively administered under the Israeli government through its taxation system and control of the movement of goods and people between the states.
When Israel illegally annexes villages in the West Bank, forcefully displacing Palestinian families from their ancestral land and replacing them with Israeli settlers, the standard of health services provided to those settlers is starkly different than what Palestinian residents receive.
A research paper comparing health indicators between Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT) shows that there is a great disparity between the neighbors in almost every category, including infant and child mortality, life expectancy, mortality rates for leading causes of death, and measures of mental well-being. Although the health disparities are due to a complex mix of factors, the paper concludes that most are a direct or indirect result of the Israeli military occupation of the OPT. It states that “the military occupation of [the] OPT creates, sustains and contributes to the disparities directly by causing psychological distress, environmental hazards, and obstructing access to medical providers and indirectly by retarding economic growth, disrupting social functioning and hindering efforts to improve healthcare and public health.” These factors also largely contributed to the dilapidated state of the Palestinian healthcare sector when the coronavirus hit the region, further mitigating its ability to combat the disease and keep civilians healthy.
Approximately 600,000 Israeli settlers currently residing in 256 settlements scattered in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, are receiving the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine while the program specifically excludes the 2.7 million Palestinian residents of the same region. Political factors are also at play including the highly competitive national election of the 24th Knesset due in March 2021.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), as of January 3, 2021, 159,034 Palestinians in the OPT, including East Jerusalem, have tested positive for COVID-19 since the first confirmed case was reported in March 2020. There have since been nearly 1,600 deaths related to the coronavirus among Palestinians in the OPT since the start of the pandemic. The Israeli Ministry of Health has not yet publicly expressed any distribution policy that reserves specific amounts of doses for Palestinians in the OPT, nor has it formulated a timeline for the disbursement of these vaccines to Palestinian health authorities.
Every landmark in Israel’s fight against the coronavirus, such as its inoculation of a quarter of its population, the millions of vaccines it was able to secure, or the ability to throw away 467 vaccines as a result of medical facilities receiving too many doses, cannot be viewed without considering Palestinians. Israel’s ability to effectively combat COVID-19 is set against the backdrop of refusal to vaccinate Palestinian subjects. Similarly, the unequal distribution of vaccines globally, where some countries can secure 25 million and others can’t even secure 25, illuminates issues of medical disparity worldwide.
