Letter | Why haven’t the U.N. and Jordan stepped up to vaccinate Palestinians?
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
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
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.
Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and the protests on college campuses.
Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.
Make a gift of any size and become a Forward member today. You’ll support our mission to tell the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
