Monday, January 18, 2021
Elder of Ziyon
As one might expect, HRW twists international law:
The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, which Israel ratified in 1991 and the State of Palestine acceded to in 2014, requires states to take steps necessary for the “prevention, treatment and control of epidemic, endemic, occupational and other diseases.”
That sure sounds like the Palestinians have the primary responsibility, doesn't it? But HRW adds:
The United Nations body responsible for monitoring this treaty has confirmed that Israel is obliged to respect this treaty in the occupied territory, and to protect the right to health and other rights of the population there.
What does this document say? This is the part HRW doesn't want you to read:
The Committee reminds the State party that it has positive and negative obligations with regard to the Occupied Palestinian Territory, depending on its level of control and the transfer of authority, that it should not raise any obstacle to the exercise of such rights in those fields where competence has been transferred to the Palestinian authorities and that any measures taken by the State party should ensure that the legislative and policy measures relating to the occupied territories taken by the State party as the occupying Power do not result in any permanent alteration in the political or legal status of the territories or have irreparable consequences for the people living there.
It says explicitly that in areas where the Palestinians have control, Israel cannot interfere with their governance without permission.
That means that Israel must not interfere with Palestinian vaccination plans - unless the Palestinian Authority asks.
Which is entirely consistent with the Geneva Conventions, with the Oslo Accords, and entirely inconsistent with what HRW is claiming!
HRW may have one point: it may be true that Israel is responsible for vaccinating the non-Israeli Palestinians in Area C, even though many of them are illegal squatters. Yet even then, it disgustingly accuses Israel of racism:
“Nothing can justify today’s reality in parts of the West Bank, where people on one side of the street are receiving vaccines, while those on the other do not, based on whether they’re Jewish or Palestinian,” said Omar Shakir, Israel and Palestine director at Human Rights Watch. “Everyone in the same territory should have equitable access to the vaccine, regardless of their ethnicity.”
This is slander. Israel is not distinguishing between Jews and Arabs. There are thousands of Arabs who live across the Green Line who get full access to Israeli services, including vaccinations.
Israel is distinguishing between citizens and non-citizens. Which is something every country on Earth does. If a nation doesn't take care of its own citizens ahead of others, it is failing in its most basic function.
The only people who really do distinguish between Jews and non-Jews are the critics of Israel like BDS and Human Rights Watch. Because, you see, they don't consider the Israeli Arabs who live across the Green Line to be "settlers."
Only Jews can be illegal settlers.
When Israel builds houses for Arabs in Jerusalem across the Green Line, Human Rights Watch is silent - even though Israeli Arabs will move there. They only complain when Jews move into those projects or neighborhoods.
When Israeli Arabs own businesses over the Green Line, their business names are not places on any "blacklists" of "illegal settler businesses." Only Jewish-owned ones are called illegal.
So when HRW accuses Israel of treating Jews better than Arabs, they are projecting their own bigotry onto Israel. Because they are the ones who say that Jews should be treated differently from non-Jews.
