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Friday, March 05, 2021

Israel had no problem vaccinating Palestinians the same as Israeli citizens during 1970 cholera outbreak

In 1970, there were cholera outbreaks throughout the Middle East, and that included Israel and Gaza.

In August, to forestall any outbreak, Israel required any Palestinians who were traveling to and from Jordan to be inoculated.


But the disease did make it in, with sometimes fatal results.

When things got bad in Gaza, Israel vaccinated every single person in UNRWA camps.

JTA, December 4, 1970:

Four new cholera cases were diagnosed in the Gaza Strip today, bringing the number of cases registered with health officials to 152. Public Health authorities characterized the cholera situation in the Gaza Strip as extremely serious. All the 200,000 refugees living in camps have been inoculated but even inoculated persons have contracted the disease. Health officials noted that the serum against cholera is not 100 percent effective. The officials stated that they cannot apply the methods that have been so successful in Jerusalem to the Gaza Strip because it has proved impossible to trace and isolate all possible contacts of every cholera infected person. As a result, there are latent cholera carriers in refugee camps who cannot be diagnosed because they have been inoculated, but who pass the germs on until they find a person whose inoculation was unsuccessful. Health authorities are now trying to devise various ways and means to get the cholera in the Gaza Strip under control.
Israel consulted with WHO in order to come up with the best ideas, and it implemented them. Because only Israel was responsible for the well-being of the Palestinian Arabs, so it was obvious that this was Israel's responsibility.

If Israel's position nowadays is "vaccine apartheid," then all the more so should Israel have not cared in 1970! 

But of course the only problem today is the false accusations, not Israel's actions, which are fully in line with both international law and morality.