Once again, the Palestinian Authority has stopped Israel from helping Palestinians during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Let this be a reminder that Israel cares more for Palestinians than the PA leaders themselves. And the lies of the media must be countered with the truth!
The media, politicians and even the UN have slammed Israel in recent weeks for not vaccinating Palestinians. These accusations have all been based on lies and false accusations.
Israel has no legal obligation to provide vaccines to Palestinians. Even the BBC had to admit it was wrong for saying Israel was responsible and stated that, in fact, it was the Palestinians who were responsible for their own healthcare as stated by the Oslo Accords. However, that hasn’t stopped Israel from trying to help Palestinians.
Despite the bad press against Israel, including President Biden this week stating the same mistruth, it is once again the PA leadership that is harming its own people as they are spreading lies to smear the Jewish state.
The latest incident comes as Israel tried to setup a vaccination station on the Temple Mount to help Palestinians to get vaccinated directly.
This location was chosen as a good place to help Palestinians because every Friday, even during lockdown, tens-of-thousands of Palestinians have broken lockdown rules to pray at the al-Aqsa mosque without restrictions.
Israel’s plans were to setup a temporary medical tent along with an Israeli medical team to provide vaccines free of charge to Palestinians. Just as many are calling for.
According to a report by the Kan public broadcaster (Hebrew) on Wednesday, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas opposed the idea since, he claimed, the act would give Israeli officialdom a presence in the Al-Aqsa Mosque area. The Temple Mount is the holiest place in Judaism; al-Aqsa mosque is the third most holy shrine in Islam.
The Israeli proposition came following the repeated publication of photos in which over 10,000 people can be seen praying in the mosque area each Friday, in disregard of COVID-19 protocols.
After Israel’s initial proposal was refused, a second was reportedly made: that the vaccines be administered by Arab Israeli paramedics and not by Jewish ones, and that they be dressed in clothes that bear no markings of Israeli medical establishments. That offer was also turned down, the report said.
We need to state the obvious here. Israel is willing to help their neighbours, their offers to help went above and beyond what is required of them by international law, but the Palestinians are once again refusing to cooperate with Israel and putting their own citizen’s lives at risk because of their hatred of Israel.
This is not the first time this has happened during the pandemic. Last year, two shipments of much needed medical equipment were sent from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to the Palestinians through Israel.
The Palestinians rejected the aid because they did not want the shipment to come through Israel. They wanted the UAE to deal directly with the Palestinians.
This shipment contained much needed medical equipment that the Palestinians were telling the world they needed. Things such as ventilators to help COVID patients and medical gas canisters and batteries that help power medical equipment.
The UAE and even United Nations officials got involved trying to convince the Palestinians to accept the aid and help their own people. Instead, the Palestinians refused it, choosing to play politics while their own citizens suffered.
Think about this, Palestinian leaders were at that time crying out for help on international forums and blaming Israel for not helping them. At the same time, these same leaders were actively rejecting aid being given to them because they did not want to work with Israel.
This hypocrisy is there for all the world to see. Yet you will not see these stories in the mainstream media, instead you will often see the lies against Israel.
The BBC spread these lies themselves. There were articles on their websites and millions of people would have watched on BBC News and even on the Andrew Marr show the false accusations and condemnations against Israel for not vaccinating Palestinians.
To clarify, Israel has no legal obligation to vaccinate Palestinians. The Palestinians accepted their own responsibility and never requested help from Israel. The Palestinians went to international forums to smear Israel only after the success of Israel’s vaccine drive to take the spotlight away from Israel’s accolades. Politicians and the media took the opportunity to smear Israel with these false accusations. Despite having no responsibility to help Palestinians, Israel went above and beyond to provide them with medical aid during the pandemic and even sent vaccines to the Palestinian territories (which they didn’t need to do).
When the truth finally came out the BBC was forced to admit that it was wrong about Israel and issued a correction stating that Israel DOES NOT have an obligation to vaccinate the Palestinians. Unfortunately, the BBC simply put out a small statement on one part of their website and never aired that statement to the millions of people who watch their TV channels.
As the saying goes, a lie will reach halfway around the world before the truth has got its trousers on.
It is shameful that so many are ready to condemn Israel at every opportunity and never speak of Israel’s good deeds towards their neighbours.
And the PA must stop allowing its hatred of Israel to override its duty of care to its own people. It seems Israel has more care for the Palestinians than Palestinian leaders themselves.
We call upon the UK Government to officially recognise Jerusalem is Israel's capital and move its embassy to Jerusalem.