Blame lies with Palestinian Authority, not Isreal

Re: WHO raises ‘concerns’ about Mideast vaccine inequity (Jan. 18)

As early as mid-December 2020, the Palestinian Authority Ministry of Health publicly admitted that they had not asked for nor did they expect help from the Israelis in procuring a vaccine. In fact, they proudly announced that they had themselves purchased four million doses from Russia that were expected to arrive shortly. One official was adamant, “We have our own government and ministry of health and they are making huge efforts to get the vaccine.”

But the media began propagating the lie that Israel was denying the vaccine to Palestinians. As the lie gained momentum and as it became clear that the P.A.’s procurement efforts were failing, the P.A. asked the Israelis for help. But at this late stage, the Israelis could provide only a small amount of doses for critical situations and began working with WHO to procure more for the Palestinians. It should be obvious that responsibility for the deteriorating situation lay with the Palestinian Authority.

So why did you breathe even more life into a lie that has been debunked several times and serves no other purpose than to insinuate that the Israelis are trying to commit genocide against the Palestinians when clearly the opposite has been true for 72 years? Why not investigate why the Palestinian regimes are armed to the teeth with hundreds of thousands of deadly missiles aimed at Israeli civilian centers while their COVID-19 arsenals are empty? Steven Scheffer, Burlington