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Israel said on Tuesday it would send a “limited amount” of “unused” doses of the coronavirus vaccine to Palestinians and to some countries, such as Honduras, that intend to open an embassy in Jerusalem.
Israel, the first in the world in terms of the number of citizens who received the vaccine, gave two doses of the Pfizer / Biontech vaccine to 3 million Israelis, almost a third of its population, thanks to a massive and rapid vaccination campaign that started. on December 19 after it agreed with Pfizer to deliver it at the rate of millions of doses against vital medical data on the effect of the vaccine.
“Israel has received numerous requests for assistance from countries requesting vaccines,” a statement issued by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said Tuesday, adding that it could not provide much assistance before the vaccination campaign was over.
However, according to the statement, with the availability of “a limited amount of unused vaccines that accumulated over the last month,” Israel decided “to assist medical teams from the Palestinian Authority and various countries by” sending “a symbolic amount. of the vaccine. “
Israel has already sent thousands of doses of vaccines to the occupied West Bank in recent weeks to medical workers in the Palestinian Authority areas.
The United Nations and NGOs say Israel is “obligated” as an “occupying power” to provide vaccines to some 2.8 million Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and 2 million in the besieged Gaza Strip.
A gift from Israel
On the other hand, Israeli media reported that Honduras in particular is likely to receive doses of the vaccine, after it announced last year its intention to move its embassy to Jerusalem.
The Prime Minister’s Office declined to comment on this, but a source familiar with the matter told AFP that Honduras would be one of the beneficiaries.
The Czech prime minister’s office confirmed to AFP on Tuesday that his country had received 5,000 doses of the Moderna vaccine sent by Israel.
“It is a gift from Israel to the Czech Republic,” which will open a diplomatic office in Jerusalem in March, the director of the prime minister’s office, Andre Babis, told AFP.
The United States, under Donald Trump, moved its embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem in 2018, while most countries do not recognize the holy city as Israel’s capital, and the United Nations considers that its status should be subject to a agreement between Israelis and Palestinians.
Israel occupied the eastern part of Jerusalem in 1967 and annexed it. It now considers the entire city its “eternal” and “indivisible” capital, while the Palestinians want to make East Jerusalem the capital of the state they aspire to establish.
For his part, the Israeli Defense Minister, Benny Gantz, denounced offering vaccines as a gift, and accused Netanyahu in a tweet of “trading in vaccines destined for citizens of Israel” and believed to be at the head of “a kingdom and not A state”. “
