Student at Tel Aviv University denied Covid vaccine based on ethnicity

Last month, Israeli Health Ministry barred a Palestinian woman from the occupied West Bank studying at Tel Aviv University from receiving the COVID-19 vaccine during a campus-wide vaccination drive, +972 Magazine reported.

In mid-February, Tel Aviv University sent an email to students and faculty to announce the establishment of an on-campus vaccination center to assist in Israel’s efforts to “vaccinate the population against the coronavirus.”

According to the email, “the vaccine will be made available to the entire university community — workers and students, who have yet to receive their first dose.”

The Palestinian student said that after receiving the email, she began to plan her journey to the university, a trip she has to make regularly to get to her classes, as a Palestinian living in the occupied Palestinian territories with a travel permit authorized by the Israeli occupation.

She left her home at 4 a.m., and she passed seven checkpoints, switched transportation eight times, walked in crazy weather, and reached the university at 9:30 a.m., as she told +972.

The student said that when she arrived and they realized she’s a Palestinian, they told her “they could not enter my name into the system and I cannot be vaccinated.”

“I stood there and watched everyone get the vaccine and leave,” she continued. “I was the only one who didn’t get vaccinated. It’s unfair to just stand there and watch everyone get their vaccine.”

The student, however, sent a letter to the university administration, describing how she waited at the university’s makeshift vaccine site for six hours, and how she was given a number of excuses as to why she could not receive the vaccine.

“Yesterday, I went through one of the toughest awakening experiences to know that to the system I am less of a human, less of a student, and I am not entitled to the same rights,” she wrote in her letter.

“During that long day, many approached me to express their apologies. I don’t have a problem with individuals, on the contrary, they were very nice and supportive.”

She said that one university representative even offered to compensate her for the travel expenses from the West Bank to Tel Aviv, an offer the student found insulting. “I want justice and equality, not charity,” she wrote.

Despite the Health Ministry’s insistence on refusing to vaccinate the Palestinian student, she said that Tel Aviv University went to great lengths to try and get her a vaccine.

One university coordinator spoke to the medical staff on site and called the Health Ministry, she said, while senior university officials arrived at one point to try to help, to no avail.

According to the student, the university staff also spoke to the administration at Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center, the city’s major hospital, yet nothing helped.

She was later told that the university president had sent a letter to the Health Ministry on the matter.

In a comment to +972, Israeli Health Ministry claimed it was not contacted by Tel Aviv University on the matter, and that had the university reached out, the student would have been vaccinated as “an exception.”

“I cannot find words to describe how I feel,” her letter continued.

“I am an advocate for global citizenship and coexistence, yet this experience challenged my beliefs and put them to test, and left me helpless and unable to defend my arguments. I am really disappointed and traumatized.”

Tel Aviv University offered the following response to the incident:

“The university considers both disease prevention and vaccine accessibility for the entire campus community, faculty, and students, extremely important, and therefore has initiated a vaccination day in collaboration with Magen David Adom. Unfortunately, the staff who were there refused to vaccinate a female student living in the [West Bank] in light of the sweeping policy established by the Health Ministry, which, so far, has not allowed for vaccinating Palestinians.”

Israel is obligated to vaccinate Palestinians

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.

Israel’s excluding of 5 million Palestinians living under its military occupation

Today, 40.26% of Israel’s population is fully vaccinated, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.

Indeed, while it has been 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.

To date, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry, there have been nearly 2296 deaths related to COVID-19 among Palestinians in the OPT since the beginning of the pandemic, 555 of them in the Gaza strip. 95339 Palestinians have been infected with the virus.

In January, ‘Israel’ agreed to transfer only 5,000 doses of COVID-19 vaccine to the Palestinians to immunize just the front-line medical workers, this was the first time that ‘Israel’ confirmed the transfer of vaccines to the Palestinians.

Later, ‘Israel’ allowed the Palestinians to send the first shipment of 1,000 COVID-19 vaccines donated by Russia to the besieged Gaza Strip, after it banned the entry of the shipment.

The Palestinian Ministry of Health said that 2,000 doses of the Russian ‘Sputnik V’ vaccine were supposed to enter Gaza Strip, however, ‘Israel’, allowed the entry of only 1000 doses, which has a population of about 2 million.

Last week, Israel announced it will begin vaccinating Palestinian workers who have permits to work inside the Green Lines or in settlements in the occupied West Bank.

Israel even ignores Palestinian prisoners in its jails

Several coronavirus infections among Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails were reported, due to the deliberate procrastinations by the administartions of Israeli prisons in providing the necessary preventive measures inside sections of prisons.

Moreover, Israeli public security minister Amir Ohana refused to give coronavirus vaccine to Palestinian prisoners, saying that vaccinating Palestinian prisoners is “not a priority,” a move that the Palestinian organizations call “racism” and aimed at “increasing the suffering of prisoners and to psychologically torture them and their families.”

Isarel finally agreed to vaccinate the Palestinian prisoners, after callings from human rights groups, as more than 350 Palestinian prisoners tested positive for COVID-19.

Giving its allies while ignoring who it occupies

Lately, Israel approved the transfer of vaccine shipments “in return for things we already received” to other countries, including the Czech Republic, Hungary, Guatemala and Honduras.

The Czech Republic, Hungary, Guatemala and Honduras have all recognised occupied Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.

“In light of the successful vaccination campaign in Israel, the leading country in the world in inoculating the population, Israel has received many requests from the countries of the world to assist with the supply of vaccines,” a statement by the Prime Minister’s Office said.

However, Netanyahu suspended the transfer of COVID-19 vaccines to other countries amid legal scrutiny.

The decision came after Israeli Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit sent a letter to National Security Adviser Meir Ben-Shabbat asking for clarifications about the program, and Israeli Defence Minister Benny Gantz said that Netanyahu made such decisions without approval, which “raises concerns that it will harm Israel’s foreign relations and national security.”

Israeli medical apartheid continues despite callings to vaccinate Palestinians

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.

“The Israeli government must stop ignoring its international obligations as an occupying power and immediately act to ensure that COVID-19 vaccines are equally and fairly provided to Palestinians living under its occupation in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip,” said Amnesty International.

It continued, “Israel’s obligations under international humanitarian law include the duty of ensuring and maintaining “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”, as per Article 56 of the Fourth Geneva Convention.”

“These responsibilities, alongside its obligations under international human rights law, include providing vaccines in a nondiscriminatory manner to Palestinians living under its control, using as a benchmark what it provides for its own citizens. The Palestinian authorities’ own obligations to protect the right to health of Palestinians in areas where they manage affairs do not absolve Israel of its responsibilities,” said Human Rights Watch.

“Israel’s deal to exchange surplus vaccines for UN votes and embassies, while the vast majority of almost 5 million Palestinians living in the occupied West Bank and Gaza are left to wait for the potentially life-saving vaccine is shameful and shortsighted,” Oxfam Acting Country Director in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, Dina Jibril, said.

The European Union last week also criticized Israel and declared its readiness to support Palestine with 20 million euros to purchase COVID-19 vaccines.

“Israel retains overriding control over land, over the population registry, over the movement of people and goods, over airspace. So under international law, that sort of control comes with it, obligations towards an occupied population,” Omar Shakir, the Israel and Palestine director for HRW, said.

Also, a number of progressive Democrats, including Rashida Tlaib, Marie Newman, and Joaquin Castro, also criticized ‘Israel’ for not giving Palestinians access to the vaccine.

“I commend Israel for leading the world on vaccinating its people, but I’m disappointed and concerned by their government’s exclusion of Palestinians living under Israeli occupation from these vaccination efforts, despite making COVID vaccines available to Israeli settlers in the West Bank,” Joaquin Castro said.

“This virus does not see or care about nationality, borders, or religion — its devastating impact is everywhere. The Netanyahu administration has a moral and humanitarian obligation to ensure that both Israelis & Palestinians have access to vaccines,” said Marie Newman.

“This cruelty is another reminder of why the occupation must end,” Jamaal Bowman said.

“I think it’s really important to understand Israel is a racist state and that they would deny Palestinians, like my grandmother, access to a vaccine, that they don’t believe that she’s an equal human being that deserves to live, deserves to be able to be protected by this global pandemic,” said Rashida Tlaib, who’s a Palestinian American.

“As the occupying power, Israel is responsible for the health of all the people under its control. It is outrageous that Netanyahu would use spare vaccines to reward his foreign allies while so many Palestinians in the occupied territories are still waiting,” US Senator Bernie Sanders said, slamming Israel for sending COVID-19 vaccines to foreign allies before sending vaccines to Palestinians.

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