Outrage among Palestinians over PA VIP vaccine sandal
Occupied West Bank (QNN)- The Palestinian Authority has confirmed that it diverted some COVID 19 vaccination doses meant for medical workers to VIPs following criticism from human rights and civil society groups, who urged an investigation.
In a statement issued on Tuesday, the health ministry said 10% of the 12,000 doses it received were given to the national football team, ministers, presidential guards, and members of the Palestine Liberation Organisation’s executive committee.
Another 200 doses went to the Jordanian royal court, after a request from Amman.
However, defending the programme, the statement said the other 90 percent went to health workers treating COVID-19 cases in intensive care units and emergency departments, as well as to health ministry workers.
The statement came following criticism from several Palestinian human rights and civil society groups, who urged an investigation into the vaccination programme, saying it was not transparent.
“The incoming information and testimonies point to ongoing cases where vaccines are obtained by several parties, in disregard of the principle of priority in distribution,” the groups said in a joint statement on Monday.
The West Bank and Gaza, home to a combined 5.2 million Palestinians, have received around 34,700 coronavirus vaccine doses to date.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas – who last month announced the first elections in 15 years – has long faced accusations of nepotism and cronyism. In a December poll, 86 percent of Palestinians surveyed said they viewed PA institutions as corrupt.
The health ministry said the ministers and security officials who received vaccines were “in direct contact with the president and the prime minister”. He also said some of those who received vaccines were election officials while the football team was vaccinated because the players needed vaccination certificates to be able to travel “to represent Palestine in a match”.
A 12-day lockdown for the West Bank was announced on Saturday after a surge in coronavirus cases.
The Ministry of Health recorded 2017 new cases in West Bank and 15 deaths recorded in same 24-hour period.
Meanwhile, in Gaza, 196 new cases were reported in the last 24 hours.
Social media users have launched the hashtag in Arabic #WhereIsTheVaccine.
Ahmad Jarrar wrote: “the vaccine scandal makes it necessary to dismiss the government due to the Ministry of Health’s failure and corruption distributing the vaccine, and its cronyism in favor of ministers, officials, and those related to them. It is also necessary to dismiss all corrupted officials in the Prime Ministry and the PA and bring them to court. If we had a real Legislative Council, would it remain silent regarding this scandal? #WhereIsTheVaccine”.
فضيحة توزيع اللقاحات تستوجب إقالة كل الحكومة بعد فشل وفساد وزارة الصحة والحكومة في التوزيع وتفضيل الوزراء والمسؤولين والدائرة القريبة من المسؤولين، وكذلك إقالة الفاسدين في الرئاسة ومنظومة السلطة ومحاسبتهم.
لو كان لدينا مجلس تشريعي حقيقي هل كان سيسكت عن هذه الفضيحة ؟#وين_اللقاح— أحمد جرار (@j_jarar) March 2, 2021
Jihad Barakat wrote: “In short, the Ministry of Health says: the government prefers to save the lives of the officials, not those who need medical care or high-risk people. But why didn’t they mention workers and journalists in the state TV, who did take the vaccine?”.
https://www.facebook.com/jehad.barakat/posts/10158891187786897
Issa Amro, a well-known activist from Hebron, wrote: “The scandal of distributing the vaccine to officials should be the reason for not electing the list that represents the government. Shame on you, you have failed even in distributing the vaccine”.
https://www.facebook.com/issaamro2012/posts/10157619037567633
