Israel begins vaccination drive for Palestinian workers

Mar 8, 2021

Israel has begun vaccinating Palestinians working in Israel and the occupied West Bank as part of a two-week voluntary COVID-19 vaccine drive. 

Israel, which has one of the world’s highest vaccination rates, had come under fire for failing to include the roughly 5.2 million Palestinians living in the West Bank and Gaza in its inoculation drive. Israeli officials argued the Oslo Accord instructed the Palestinians to manage their own health care, including the estimated 122,000 Palestinians working in Israel or its settlements. 

But human rights groups said Israel had a responsibility to administer the vaccine to those living under its occupation. Israel captured the West Bank, an area the Palestinians seek for a future state, during the 1967 war. 

The Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT), the Israeli military liaison in the Palestinian territories, announced late last month it would provide Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine to all Palestinians with Israeli work permits. On Monday, COGAT announced that some 5,000 Palestinian workers had received a jab.  

According to The Times of Israel, immunization centers opened at eight West Bank crossings on Monday; a further four are expected to open at industrial centers in the territory on Tuesday.