Saturday, December 19, 2020
Elder of Ziyon
Left unsaid is that millions of Israelis will also have to wait months - there are not enough vaccines to go around now. AP is suggesting that Israel prioritize its own citizens behind Palestinians, which no nation on Earth would or should do.
While buried in the story it mentions that all rich nations are getting the vaccines before all poor nations, only Israel is blamed for this. No one is telling the US to wait to inoculate its citizens until Haitians are all vaccinated.
It isn't a question of discrimination. It is a question of logistics and limited resources. And even with that, PBS doesn't mention how Israel is working to provide vaccines for Palestinians by the millions.
But there is one part of the report where an Israeli Leftist NGO, Physicians for Human Rights, makes an incredibly condescending statement about Palestinians, and no one even bats an eye.
Physicians for Human Rights-Israel, a group that advocates for more equitable health care, says Israel has a legal obligation as an occupying power to purchase and distribute vaccines to the Palestinians. It says Israel must also ensure that vaccines that don’t meet its own safety guidelines — like the Russian shot — are not distributed in areas under its control.
The Palestinian Authority has approved the Russian vaccine. Israel hasn't.
PHRI is saying that Palestinians cannot make their own decisions as to which vaccines are safe for them to use. Even worse, they are saying that the potential benefits of the Russian vaccine must not be made available to Palestinians but that they must adhere to Israeli medical standards, whether they want to or not - and at the risk of many more people becoming ill and dying.
The Russian Sputnik-V vaccine, although viewed with some skepticism by some, has been bought by countries like India, Brazil and Mexico. Russia claims a 92% effectiveness rate, on par with those of Pfizer and Moderna. Israel's Hadassah Hospital is helping the Palestinians import the vaccine, even though it will not be used by Israel at this time.
Yet Physicians for Human Rights-Israel is against this potentially life saving measure, because they condescendingly consider Palestinians too stupid to make life and death decisions for themselves.
That is Leftist racism.
And you can be sure that if Israel blocked the Russian vaccine from being sent to Palestinians, PHR-I would be the first to accuse Israel of human rights abuses.
