Letter | Why haven’t the U.N. and Jordan stepped up to vaccinate Palestinians?

Palestinian man receives Moderna COVID vaccine at Israeli checkpoint

A Palestinian laborer takes a ‘selfie’ photograph as he receives a dose of the Moderna Inc. Covid-19 vaccine at a temporary vaccination center at the Meitar checkpoint crossing into Israel, south of Hebron, West Bank, on Tuesday, March 9, 2021 By Bloomberg/Getty Images

By Toby Stuart March 12, 2021

To the editors,

I do not criticize you for publishing an op-ed advocating and pushing Israel to step up and help vaccinate the Palestinians on the West Bank. (“Yes, Israel should vaccinate all Palestinians. Here’s why.”)

After all, who else would care to?

The assumption that Israel should vaccinate Palestinians is based solely on the perverse notion they should prioritize Palestinians over their own citizens, including Israeli Christians, Muslims and Druze. The issue is further complicated by the fact 1-2 million West Bank citizens are Jordanian passport holders, yet no one accuses Jordan of not stepping up.

Another question: why isn’t the U.N. responsible for vaccinating those Palestinians designated as refugees? They are dependents of the U.N.

As Israel nears the completion of vaccinating its citizens it has made vaccines available. Israel began vaccinating Palestinian health workers on March 9.

It is time that Mahmoud Abbas steps up, and that he and his buddies start buying vaccines off the market rather than hording relief money and using other money to reward acts of terrorism against Jews. If they ever want to be a country, they need to start acting like they can actually manage a country responsibly. To my mind this may be taken as proof the P.A. may never achieve a level of competency to run a nation.

Respectfully,

Toby Stuart

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