JERUSALEM (AP) – When it comes to obtaining hard-to-obtain vaccines against the coronavirus, Israel’s friends discover that the road appears to be through Jerusalem.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu acknowledged on Wednesday that vaccines against the coronavirus have been shared with a number of friendly countries who have shown a favor to Israel in the past. While he did not identify the countries, a list obtained by an Israeli TV channel suggested that some of them supported Israel’s claim to have the disputed city of Jerusalem as its capital.
The comments came at a time when Israel is facing international criticism for not sharing its vast stockpile of vaccines with the Palestinians. They also showed how in a time of global shortages the vaccine has become an asset that can be used for diplomatic gain.
“As an occupying force, Israel is responsible for the health of all people under its control,” tweeted US Senator Bernie Sanders. “It is outrageous that Netanyahu would use backup vaccines to reward his foreign allies while so many Palestinians are still waiting in the occupied territories.”
While Israel does not make its own vaccines, Netanyahu has overseen one of the world’s most successful vaccination campaigns by securing millions of doses from drug manufacturers Pfizer and Moderna. Speaking at a press conference, he said Israel has already vaccinated more than 5 million people with the Pfizer / BioNTech vaccine and could complete the task of vaccinating its 6.2 million adults within weeks.
He also said Israel has an oversupply of hundreds of thousands of Moderna vaccines.
After determining that Israel has “more than enough” vaccines for its own population, he said he had personally decided to share what he called a symbolic number of doses with some of Israel’s allies.
He said it was done “in exchange for things we have already received, through many contacts in various fields that I will not describe here,” Netanyahu said. “I think it definitely buys goodwill.”
Israeli public broadcaster Kan said a total of about 100,000 Moderna vaccines are being sent to about 15 allies.
They include Honduras, Guatemala, Hungary, Uganda and the Czech Republic – countries that have recognized Jerusalem as the capital of Israel or expressed an interest in opening diplomatic offices there following the Trump administration’s relocation of the U.S. Embassy to the city. 2018.
Chad, which has established diplomatic ties with Israel in 2019, Mauritania, believed to be on the verge of re-establishing relations, and several other African countries with close security ties with Israel, including Ethiopia and Kenya, were also on the list .
When asked about Netanyahu using their vaccines as a diplomatic tool, Moderna declined comment.
The Palestinians claim East Jerusalem, conquered by Israel in the 1967 Middle East War and later annexed, as the capital of a future state. The competing claims to the city are at the heart of the decades-long conflict, and most of the international community says Jerusalem’s fate must be resolved through negotiation.
Netanyahu noted that Israel has also pledged to share some vaccines with the Palestinians. Israel has only delivered 2,000 Moderna doses to the internationally recognized Palestinian Authority to vaccinate medical workers in the West Bank.
Otherwise, the Palestinians will have trouble getting their own vaccines. The Palestinian Authority received 10,000 doses of Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine, while a rival of President Mahmoud Abbas delivered an additional 20,000 Sputnik vaccines to the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip this week. after arranging delivery from UAE.
Together, these vaccines will cover only a fraction of the millions of Palestinians. The Palestinian Authority has said it expects to receive more vaccines through the World Health Organization’s COVAX program and other deals, but it remains unclear when the drugs will arrive.
Wasel Abu Yusuf, a senior Palestinian official, accused Netanyahu of playing politically with a humanitarian issue.
“He is using the vaccines that some countries need to get political support for his policies, such as moving embassies to Jerusalem,” he said. “The amounts of vaccines he is talking about to the Palestinians in the West Bank are very small.”
The inequality has drawn attention to the global inequality in obtaining vaccines between rich and poor countries and has sparked international criticism.
Lawrence Gostin, a professor of global health law at Georgetown University, said it is understandable that Israel wants to take care of its own citizens first. But “at some point it becomes ethically grotesque,” he said.
He said that apart from having a moral responsibility to the Palestinians, it would be smart to help them.
“The reason it’s smart is that it would bring tremendous benefits to Israel in its reputation in the region and globally,” he said. “If we don’t share the vaccine, we will not be forgotten because so many people die unnecessarily from preventable disease.”
UN officials and human rights organizations have voiced concerns on inequality and said Israel is an occupation force responsible for providing vaccines to Palestinians.
Israel says it has no such responsibility under 1990s interim peace deals. Israel has vaccinated its own Arab population, including Palestinians in Israel-annexed East Jerusalem.
But Israeli public health experts have called on the government to share the vaccines, given the widespread contact between Israelis and Palestinians. Tens of thousands of Palestinian workers work in Israel or the settlements in the West Bank.
The Biden administration has refrained from criticizing Israel, but has expressed support for sharing vaccines with the Palestinians. “We believe it is important for Palestinians to have greater access to the COVID vaccine in the coming weeks,” said State Department spokesman Ned Price. “It is also important to Israel, the health and security of Israel.
Netanyahu’s decision to share the vaccines with allies is under fire at home. His main rival and government partner, Secretary of Defense Benny Gantz, said Netanyahu made the decision unilaterally without any consultation or oversight.
“The fact that Netanyahu deals unaccountably in vaccines from Israeli citizens paid with their tax dollars shows that he thinks he is running a kingdom and not a state,” Gantz said this week.
AP correspondents Laurie Kellman in Tel Aviv and Matthew Lee in Washington reported.