Palestinian authorities say they are refusing 1 million corona vaccines from Israel because they are about to expire.
Israel’s new government announced on Friday that it would transfer vaccine doses that will soon expire to Palestine. In return, Israel was to receive a delivery with the corresponding number of doses that the Palestinians have ordered from Pfizer, and which are expected to be delivered this autumn.
Palestinian authorities faced strong criticism on social media, accusing them of accepting second-rate vaccines.
The first 100,000 doses were simultaneously transferred to the occupied West Bank. That same evening, the health authorities said that they had inspected the vaccines.
– They did not meet our standard, so we decided to return them, says the Palestinian Minister of Health Mai Alkaila.
So far, there has been no comment on this from Israel, which has largely closed to the Sabbath.
– Agreement with Pfizer
Israel has reopened society after about 85 percent of the adult population there has received at least one vaccine dose.
When Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett announced the swap deal earlier Friday, he said they were about to expire, but without saying what date.
“Israel has signed an agreement with the Palestinian Authority,” Bennett said.
The Palestinians said the transfer was Pfizer’s idea to speed up the delivery of 4 million doses that the Palestinian Authority has already paid for in an agreement with the pharmaceutical company.
– This is not an agreement with Israel, but with the company Pfizer, said the Palestinian Minister of Health before the agreement was scrapped.
Successful vaccination
Israel quickly secured agreements with the pharmaceutical industry. As a result, they received large deliveries of the Pfizer / Biontech vaccine at an early stage and have carried out one of the world’s most successful vaccination campaigns.
Israel has been criticized for not sharing more vaccines with the Palestinians in the occupied territories.
Human rights groups have said that Israel, as an occupying power under the Geneva Convention, is obliged to share vaccines with the Palestinians. It rejects the Israeli authorities, who have referred to the Oslo Accords from the 1990s and said that according to them, the Palestinian Authority is responsible for vaccinating Palestinians.
Less than 10 percent of the population in the West Bank and Gaza Strip have been vaccinated.
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