As Israel’s world-leading coronavirus vaccination program makes international headlines, Human Rights Watch executive director Ken Roth rushed to Twitter to spread the lie that Israel is committing an act of racism by not vaccinating all Palestinians living under Hamas rule in Gaza and the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank.
But in a January 4th Twitter thread seen more than 200,000 times (see below), UN Watch’s Hillel Neuer explained why Roth’s claims are a deception.
Ken Roth doesn't like good news about Israel's vaccinations, so he's trying to twist it into an act of racism.
Here's how he deceives:
1/ Law. He says "as occupying power," Israel "has not vaccinated a single Palestinian." But the PA is responsible for health & vaccinations. https://t.co/Ag0TIri9zw
— Hillel Neuer (@HillelNeuer) January 4, 2021
3/ PA Ministry of Health: “We are working on our own to obtain the vaccine from a number of sources. We are not a department in the Israeli Defense Ministry. We have our own government & Health Ministry, and they are making huge efforts to get the vaccine.”https://t.co/3lRjyHb3ro
— Hillel Neuer (@HillelNeuer) January 4, 2021
5/ "A senior official with the Palestinian Authority Ministry of Health said that the Palestinians do not expect Israel to sell them, or purchase on their behalf, the vaccine from any country."
— Hillel Neuer (@HillelNeuer) January 4, 2021
7/ "Israel’s vaccine operation has run in predominately Arab areas in Israel from day one. Out of a concern that not enough eligible Israeli Arabs have been showing up to vaccination sites, Prime Minister Netanyahu visited two Arab cities in recent days."https://t.co/LXyDfSRJDJ
— Hillel Neuer (@HillelNeuer) January 4, 2021
9/ Ironically, while Ken Roth's position has been to argue that the PA has so many powers that it's even legally a state—and so can join the ICC & sue Israel—he pretends not to know about the legal power the PA actually does have, per the Oslo Accords, over Health & Vaccinations.
— Hillel Neuer (@HillelNeuer) January 4, 2021
11/ Now read this thread on those “suffering under the intense stress of watching Israel do something good & not knowing how to reconcile that with the burning theological commitment they have to the proposition that everything Israeli is touched by sin.”https://t.co/rNhPw0rYXQ
— Hillel Neuer (@HillelNeuer) January 6, 2021
Neuer also called out Roth’s colleague Omar Shakir, as well as Amnesty International, for propagating the same libel:
The same group that always cites the Palestinian Ministry of Health now wants you not to know that it exists, is responsible for vaccinating its population & has rejected Israeli help. See this thread for key facts: https://t.co/GmnBe20xrs
Amnesty just wants you to hate Jews. https://t.co/7YulTFjAPn
— Hillel Neuer (@HillelNeuer) January 6, 2021
Palestinian Authority Officials Contradict Themselves
Since then, the Palestinians have contradicted themselves numerous times. In late December, PA Health Ministry officials said that they did not ask Israel to provide the Palestinians with the vaccine. But when they saw that anti-Israel critics began propagating the successful smear, the PA suddenly released a statement claiming that Israel is nevertheless responsible for providing vaccines. The PA made this statement even as they were busy signing their own deal with the AstraZeneca pharmaceutical firm, as well as procuring the Russian Sputnik V vaccine.
Meanwhile, the head of the World Health Organization’s mission to the Palestinians, Gerald Rockenschaub, has clarified that “informal discussions” between Israel and the WHO took place — contrary to false claims that Israel had refused an official WHO request to supply Palestinians with vaccines.
Liked and Shared
Neuer’s Twitter thread was liked or shared by former Member of European Parliament Bas Belder, former Dutch MP Jacques Monasch, former and current Israeli diplomats Daniel Carmon, Arthur Lenk, Tania Berg-Rafaeli and Galit Peleg, former Canadian ambassador to Israel Vivian Bercovici, Jewish Agency spokesperson Yigal Palmor, editor David Hazony, Toronto Sun columnist Lorrie Goldstein and French lawyer and columnist William Goldnadel.
