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.