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After delays and ethics debates, Israel begins vaccinating 100,000 Palestinian day laborers
Also: After delays, Israel starts vaccinating Palestinian workers (Associated Press)
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Source: Washington Post
After delays and ethics debates, Israel begins vaccinating 100,000 Palestinian day laborers
By Shira Rubin
March 8, 2021 at 6:44 a.m. EST
SHA’AR EFRAIM, Israel — Israel on Monday kicked off its two-week campaign to vaccinate more than 100,000 Palestinians carrying Israeli work permits even as vaccines remain a distant dream for most residents of the West Bank.
At the crossing of Sha'ar Efraim, the Israeli military set up one of eight vaccination centers along the 440-mile-long barrier dividing Israel from the Palestinian territories with the capacity to vaccinate 1,000 people a day.
“It is within both Israeli and Palestinian interests that we vaccinate the workers, since, as we know, coronavirus knows no geographical boundaries,” said Lior Wisbaum, foreign relations officer at Cogat, the Israeli military agency that coordinates with the Palestinian Authority.
On Tuesday, Cogat is scheduled to open four similar vaccination clinics at industrial centers within the West Bank.
Some 80,000 Palestinians from the West Bank work in Israel proper, mostly in construction, agriculture and other menial fields. An additional 35,000 work in Israeli settlements in the West Bank. Two-thirds of those day laborers have been unemployed since last April, according to a report by the Bank of Israel.
-snip-
By Shira Rubin
March 8, 2021 at 6:44 a.m. EST
SHA’AR EFRAIM, Israel — Israel on Monday kicked off its two-week campaign to vaccinate more than 100,000 Palestinians carrying Israeli work permits even as vaccines remain a distant dream for most residents of the West Bank.
At the crossing of Sha'ar Efraim, the Israeli military set up one of eight vaccination centers along the 440-mile-long barrier dividing Israel from the Palestinian territories with the capacity to vaccinate 1,000 people a day.
“It is within both Israeli and Palestinian interests that we vaccinate the workers, since, as we know, coronavirus knows no geographical boundaries,” said Lior Wisbaum, foreign relations officer at Cogat, the Israeli military agency that coordinates with the Palestinian Authority.
On Tuesday, Cogat is scheduled to open four similar vaccination clinics at industrial centers within the West Bank.
Some 80,000 Palestinians from the West Bank work in Israel proper, mostly in construction, agriculture and other menial fields. An additional 35,000 work in Israeli settlements in the West Bank. Two-thirds of those day laborers have been unemployed since last April, according to a report by the Bank of Israel.
-snip-
Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle_east/vaccine-israel-palestinian-palestine/2021/03/08/c43b6390-7fef-11eb-be22-32d331d87530_story.html
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Source: Associated Press
After delays, Israel starts vaccinating Palestinian workers
March 8, 2021
JERUSALEM (AP) — After delays, Israel started vaccinating Palestinians who work inside the country and its West Bank settlements on Monday, more than two months after launching an immunization blitz of its own population.
Palestinian laborers who crossed into Israel at several West Bank checkpoints received their first doses of the Moderna vaccine from Magen David Adom paramedics. The vaccination drive orchestrated by COGAT, Israel’s military agency coordinating government operations in the West Bank, had been beset by postponements.
Some 100,000 Palestinian laborers from the West Bank work in Israel and its settlements, which are widely seen internationally as illegal and an obstacle to peace.
Maj. Gen. Kamil Abu Rukun, the head of COGAT, said in a statement in Arabic that Israelis and Palestinians “live in the same epidemiological space” and that it was a shared interest to vaccinate Palestinians.
Israel has administered over 8.7 million doses of the Pfizer vaccine to its population of 9.3 million. Over 3.7 million Israelis — more than 40% — have received two doses of the vaccine. But until Monday, Israel had provided few vaccines for Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, a move that has underscored global disparities and drawn international criticism.
-snip-
March 8, 2021
JERUSALEM (AP) — After delays, Israel started vaccinating Palestinians who work inside the country and its West Bank settlements on Monday, more than two months after launching an immunization blitz of its own population.
Palestinian laborers who crossed into Israel at several West Bank checkpoints received their first doses of the Moderna vaccine from Magen David Adom paramedics. The vaccination drive orchestrated by COGAT, Israel’s military agency coordinating government operations in the West Bank, had been beset by postponements.
Some 100,000 Palestinian laborers from the West Bank work in Israel and its settlements, which are widely seen internationally as illegal and an obstacle to peace.
Maj. Gen. Kamil Abu Rukun, the head of COGAT, said in a statement in Arabic that Israelis and Palestinians “live in the same epidemiological space” and that it was a shared interest to vaccinate Palestinians.
Israel has administered over 8.7 million doses of the Pfizer vaccine to its population of 9.3 million. Over 3.7 million Israelis — more than 40% — have received two doses of the vaccine. But until Monday, Israel had provided few vaccines for Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, a move that has underscored global disparities and drawn international criticism.
-snip-
Read more: https://apnews.com/article/israel-immunizations-coronavirus-pandemic-west-bank-5d18f75cbce3fa8df5c8b885599d81b4