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Israel, the Palestinians, and the Covid-19 Vaccines

(Institute for Contemporary Affairs-Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs) Amb. Alan Baker - Israel has been accused of war crimes and preventing and denying the transfer of vaccines to the Palestinian population of the territories. This upsurge of criticism is based on false, flawed, malign, and misguided assumptions - or deliberately misleading claims - that Israel is the "occupying power" in the West Bank and Gaza. What are Israel's legal requirements? Israel is under no obligation under international humanitarian law to provide vaccinations to the population of the territories. Israel's status is not that of an "occupying power," since it did not acquire the territories from an "ousted sovereign power" as required by the 1949 Fourth Geneva Convention, but rather from a Jordanian administration that had never received international acknowledgment of its claims to sovereignty. The sole source of legal authority in the territories is the 1993-5 Oslo Accords, agreed to by Israel and the Palestinian leadership. They established an independent legal regime whereby the Palestinian Authority has the full responsibility to govern those parts of the territories placed by the accords under its control. In Article 17 of the Third (Civilian) annex to the Oslo 2 accord, the Palestinian side assumed full powers and responsibilities in the field of health care and importation of medicines. On Jan. 6, 2021, the Jerusalem Post reported that "PA Ministry of Health officials said the Palestinians have not asked Israel to supply them with, nor to purchase on their behalf, vaccines against the novel coronavirus." Clearly, epidemiological and moral considerations require both Israel and the Palestinians to cooperate to reduce the risk of Covid-19 spreading between their respective territories. But allegations that Israel has an international legal duty to provide vaccines to the Palestinians have no basis. The writer, Director of the Institute for Contemporary Affairs at the Jerusalem Center and former deputy director-general of Israel's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, participated in the negotiation and drafting of the Oslo Accords with the Palestinians.
2021-01-14 00:00:00
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