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The Right to Health in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (oPt)
Format
Sarah Slan
sarah.slan@peacewatch.ch
Project manager Palestine/Israel
On 23 December 2020, a few days after Israel rolled out its Covid-19 vaccine campaign to the Israeli public, excluding the Palestinians living in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, 20 Palestinian, Israeli, and international health and human rights organizations released a joint statement. In their statement, they urged Israeli authorities “to live up to their legal obligations and ensure that quality vaccines be provided to Palestinians living under Israeli occupation and control in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip”.
The referred to ‘legal obligations’ stem from International Human Rights Law and International Humanitarian Law, under which the state of Israel as an occupying power has the duty to ensure and protect the health and healthcare services for Palestinians living under its occupation.
The implication is clear: Israel should be ensuring the palestinians get vaccinated, as we do our own citizens. Actually, it is more than implied; both reports say it explicitly. For instance, from the AP one:
Physicians for Human Rights-Israel, a group that advocates for more equitable health care, says Israel has a legal obligation as an occupying power to purchase and distribute vaccines to the Palestinians. It says Israel must also ensure that vaccines that don’t meet its own safety guidelines like the Russian shot are not distributed in areas under its control.
“Israel still maintains control over many aspects of the Palestinians’ lives, whether checkpoints, importing goods and medication, and controlling the movement of people,” said Ghada Majadle, the director of the group’s activities in the Palestinian territories.