(Newsweek) Prof. Eugene Kontorovich - Claims that Israel has an obligation under international law to provide free vaccines for all Palestinians in the Palestinian Authority are baseless. The central source of international law is treaties, and the Oslo Accords is an international agreement that directly addresses the vaccine issue. It established a highly detailed division of authority between Israel and the Palestinians for numerous issues including public health. According to the agreement, vaccination is solely a Palestinian governmental concern. Not only are Palestinians capable of securing vaccines from abroad, they have in fact done so - though, according to media reports, they have misallocated early doses to ruling party officials and even re-exported many to Jordanian royals. In fact, the PA is receiving vaccines at roughly the same speed as are comparable governments. According to a State Department report, the PA spends hundreds of millions of dollars on its "pay to slay" program that incentivizes terror against Israeli Jews. The funding for that program would be more than enough to buy vaccines for its entire population. But the PA has put killing Jews ahead of protecting its own people. The writer is director of George Mason University Law School's Center for the Middle East and International Law.
2021-03-25 00:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive