Palestine turns down Israel's COVID vaccine exchange deal, reasons 'expiry date too soon'

Just hours after Israel announced the decision to transfer 1.2 million doses of Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine, the Palestinian Authority has called off the exchange deal with its neighbours. Palestinians have stated that COVID-19 vaccine doses sent by Israel are to 'expire too soon' as a reason behind rejecting the offer. As part of the exchange deal, Palestine was supposed to provide Israel with the shipments of Pfizer jabs originally meant for Palestinians scheduled for delivery in the months of September and October.

PM Bennett's gesture of transferring the anti-COVID jabs, which has now been turned down, came at a time when Palestine has been struggling with its COVID vaccination drive in contrast to Israel, which has already vaccinated nearly 60% of its population. On the other hand, Palestine has managed to vaccinate only 5.3% of its population, administering 2.49 lakh people with both doses. 

Earlier in the day, Israel's Foreign Minister had said that Prime Minister Naftali Bennet-led government had agreed on a deal to transfer 1.2 million doses of the Pfizer vaccine to the Palestinian Authority. The transfer process, according to some reports, had already begun until now that the Palestinian Authority has rejected the swap deal. 

'Decision made by Netanyahu govt'

The gesture also came in the face of extensive criticism aimed at Israel from human rights groups and medical professionals for turning a blind eye to Palestinians' struggle with the COVID vaccination drive. As per local media reports, the decision to assist Palestine was reached during a meeting of new Health Minister Nitzan Horowitz and senior Health Ministry officials. The report said that the decision to supply the vaccines had already been made by the previous government under Benjamin Netanyahu, but there had been no follow-through. 

Israel has refrained from undertaking any campaign to vaccinate the general Palestinian population, including those residing in the West Bank. In fact, last month Health Ministry Director-General Chezy Levy while advocating help for Palestinians said that Israel should demand a COVID negative test for Palestinians wanting to come into the country for medical treatment. 

Meanwhile, the Palestinian Authority has received COVID vaccines through COVAX, a global vaccine program for poor and middle-income countries backed by the World Health Organization. COVAX, advocated by the WHO, aims to provide enough free doses to immunize up to 20 per cent of a participating country’s population, for which around 90 countries have signed up for the program, including India. The doses received so far by the PA for use in the West Bank include 100,000 from China and 58,000 from Russia. Previously, Israel had donated 5,000 Moderna and 200 Pfizer doses for Palestinian medical workers.