Israel, the Palestinians and the Vaccine

 On the SOYMB blog's daily trawl through the media sites a number has reported Israel's Prime Minister Netanyahu getting his vaccine. 

Few of those news outlets, however, mentioned that the Israeli squatters in the Occupied Territories will soon be given their vaccines, but the Palestinians on the West Bank will not be receiving any for a long time and it will be way via the COVAX scheme.

The 1949 Geneva Convention (Article 56):

"To the fullest extent of the means available to it, the Occupying Power has the duty of ensuring and maintaining, with the cooperation of national and local authorities, 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. Medical personnel of all categories shall be allowed to carry out their duties."

 Two million Palestinians in Gaza only have 60 ICU or intensive care beds, and not all of them are functional due to the Israeli blockade.

 Palestine’s health ministry, Kamal Shakhri, is warning of a health care “catastrophe” this winter as coronavirus cases skyrocket toward 2,000 or possibly even 3,000 a day (the US equivalent of 220,000 to 330,000 a day– one of the worst rates in the world). On Saturday, in the West Bank, the health department in Ramallah reported 1,750 new cases of the coronavirus and 25 deaths. In Palestine over all, there are only 1.2 hospital beds per 1,000 people. Compare to Germany with 8.3 beds per thousand people.

There are roughly 3 million Palestinians in the Palestinian West Bank, so their daily 25 deaths are the equivalent of 2,750 American deaths daily, one of the worst rates in the world. If 0.9% of all infected die, and they have over half a million active cases in the territory, we can expect 5,490 to die out of the current situation.

Call it what you will, apartheid, racism, segregation, colonialism, but some will call it genocide.

Everyday War Crimes: Israeli PM Netanyahu Gets Covid Vaccine, Squatters Get Vaccine, But Not Occupied Palestinians | Common Dreams Views