Thread by @sfrantzman

Thread: The same people who often refer to Arab citizens of Israel as Palestinians, claim Israel isn’t vaccinating Palestinians. They are wrong.

Israel is vaccinating Arab citizens of Israel, which some refer to as Palestinian citizens and Palestinian Arab residents of Jerusalem

It’s true Israel isn’t vaccinating non-citizen residents of Gaza, which Israel left in 2005, and of the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank. 139 countries have recognized a Palestinian state, so that state has responsibility for vaccinating its citizens and deserves support.

The fact is that Palestinians, whether Arab citizens of Israel or non-citizens will do better under the health system of Israel and the Palestinian Authority areas than in many neighboring states. The international community should definitely help Gaza, and Israel can too.

In the end Israel will likely end up vaccinating far more Palestinians than other countries where Palestinians reside, such as Lebanon. And Israel is offering the vaccine to non-citizens unlike many countries.

Can Israel do better down the road to help Ramallah and Gaza. Sure. But in the end Israeli health insurance providers, the main providers of the vaccine, can’t operate there. So local authorities will.

Furthermore in Jerusalem the Palestinians of east Jerusalem have and will have vaccines but they also need to have community leadership to come and receive it, which many have not done. They have access to Israel health providers.

The idea that Israel has a responsibility to vaccinate Gaza, which it doesn’t administer or parts of the West Bank that many recognize as a Palestinian state under its own authority, is not logical. Must Cyprus vaccinate Turkish-occupied Cyprus? Is Turkey vaccinating Idlib?

We know that the same critics who excoriate Israel for not doing enough for Gaza, are the same ones silent on Turkey’s illegal occupation of Afrin. So definitely when they speak up about Ankara providing vaccines to those it ethnically cleansed from Afrin, better to listen.

Otherwise, much of this story about Israel not vaccinating various non-citizens is just a manufactured anti-Israel story. Israel didn’t provide them health care in 2019 and doesn’t today. Can Israel help like the international community? Yes. And it should encourage/facilitate

The best path for Israel is to facilitate and in some cases provide for Palestinians where it can, such as Area C, and provide advice as it has throughout the pandemic via the civil administration to partners in the West Bank. Some states that fund Gaza, like Qatar, can help.

Israel should VACCINATE its citizens and residents snd non-citizens as best it can, then it should ramp up FACILITATION for Palestinian Authority areas and COORDINATE to supply Gaza. Any talking points that don’t look at this complexity are hypocritical and wrong.