“I’ll give you some extra, open the embassy in Jerusalem” Israel’vaccine diplomacy’

To make Jerusalem the capital
Guatemala and Czech Republic
Israel has announced that it will distribute the remaining new coronavirus infection (Corona 19) vaccine to other countries. In particular, countries that announced that they would install an embassy in Jerusalem, which Israel declared as the capital, despite territorial disputes with Palestine, are mentioned as the main targets of support. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement on the 23rd, “We will send some of our current vaccine reserves to Palestine and other countries requesting the vaccine.” The Prime Minister’s office did not mention specific country names, but Reuters reported that Guatemala, Honduras, and the Czech Republic were included.

The three countries share in common that the Israeli embassy moved from Tel Aviv, the economic center, to Jerusalem, or showed interest before. After the Israeli occupation of East Jerusalem, which was under the control of Palestine during the Third Middle East War in 1967, Israel declared the whole of Jerusalem as its capital. Even though the UN and the international community have not recognized this, they have persuaded friendly countries to move their embassy to Jerusalem. Among them, the Czech government said it had already received a small amount of vaccine. The governments of Guatemala and Honduras are also said to receive 5,000 vaccines each in the near future.

Israel is currently using the Corona 19 vaccine as a major diplomatic vehicle. The Associated Press reported on the 21st that Israel secretly agreed to buy Syria a Russian-made Corona 19 vaccine instead, and exchanged two Israeli arrested in Syria and two Syrians detained in Israel. To date, Israel has vaccinated 446 million out of 9.3 million people. This is due to the fact that it signed a contract for 8 million doses in November last year as a condition of handing over the vaccination data to Pfizer, a US pharmaceutical company, and received a rapid supply of vaccines a month later. The Philippines also announced on the 24th that it would send a large number of medical personnel, including nurses, to countries that supply the Corona 19 vaccine. Currently, the number of medical workers dispatched abroad is limited to 5,000 people per year, but it means that the number of people assigned to vaccine supply countries will be significantly increased. Local media are interpreting that the number of nurses dispatched to the Philippines has actually requested vaccine supply to the UK and Germany. Cairo = Correspondent Lim Hyun-seok [email protected]