Pfizer CEO: I’m sure Netanyahu’s desire for vaccine deal also linked to politics

Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla has said that former Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s desire regarding bringing the occupation state out of the pandemic was a politically expedient move by the Likud leader.

In an interview published on Saturday with the Financial Times, Bourla stated that he was aware that it was in the Likud leader’s political interest to be seen as bringing the occupation state out of the coronavirus pandemic earlier this year, ahead of yet another election.

“The biggest thing that became clear was Bibi was on top of everything, he knew everything,” Bourla said, using Netanyahu’s nickname.

“He called me 30 times, asking: ‘What about young people . . . what are you doing about the South African variant?’ I’m sure he was doing it for his people, but I’m also sure he was thinking: ‘It could help me politically.’”

Indeed, while it was praised for its swift vaccine rollout, ‘Israel’ excluded the nearly 5 million Palestinians who live in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, under its military occupation, from COVID-19 vaccination.

Many international and humanitarian organizations and officials criticized ‘Israel’ for not giving the Palestinians access to the vaccine, saying it’s obligated to do so as an occupying power.

Under the fourth Geneva Convention, ‘Israel’, as an occupying power, is obligated to provide Palestinians with the vaccines, as the occupying forces are responsible for providing healthcare to the population of the occupied area.

Most states as well as the United Nations Security Council, the United Nations General Assembly, the International Court of Justice, and the International Committee of the Red Cross, consider ‘Israel’ to be an occupying power.

The Fourth Geneva Convention obliges ‘Israel’, as the occupying power, to ensure the “medical supplies of the [occupied] population,” including “adoption and application of the prophylactic and preventive measures necessary to combat the spread of contagious diseases and epidemics” to “the fullest extent of the means available to it.”

‘Israel’ remains the occupying power in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and Gaza under international humanitarian law, given the extent of its control over borders, the movement of people and goods, security, taxation, and registry of the population, among other areas.

This obligation, as well as the customary international law requirement rooted in Article 43 of the Hague Resolutions of 1907 to ensure public order and safety for the occupied population, increases in a prolonged occupation.

Under these circumstances, the needs of the occupied population,the Palestinians, are greater, and the occupier, ‘Israel, must commit to the international laws and give the Palestinians access to the COVID-19 vaccine.

Later, after several attempts to prevent Palestinians from getting the vaccine and under international community pressure, ‘Israel’ allowed the Palestinians to get vaccinated.