JERUSALEM (AP) – When it comes to getting hard-to-get coronavirus vaccines, friends of Israel discover that it looks like the road crosses Jerusalem.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday acknowledged sharing coronavirus vaccines with several friendly countries that have given favors to Israel in the past. Although he did not identify the countries, a list obtained by an Israeli television station suggested that several of them supported Israel’s claim to the disputed city of Jerusalem as its capital.
The comments came at a time when Israel is facing international criticism for not doing more to share its large vaccine reserve with the Palestinians. They also illustrated how in a time of global scarcity, the vaccine has become an asset which can be used for diplomatic gain.
“As an occupying power, Israel is responsible for the health of all people under its control,” tweeted U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders. “It is outrageous that Netanyahu uses spare vaccines to reward his foreign allies while so many Palestinians in the occupied territories are still waiting.”
Although Israel does not manufacture its own vaccines, Netanyahu has overseen one of the world’s most successful vaccination campaigns by securing millions of doses to drugmakers Pfizer and Moderna. At a press conference, he said Israel has already vaccinated more than 5 million people with the Pfizer / BioNTech vaccine and could complete the task of inoculating its 6.2 million adults in a few weeks.
He also said that Israel has an oversupply of hundreds of thousands of Modern vaccines.
After determining that Israel has “more than enough” vaccines for its own population, he said he personally decided to share what he called a symbolic number of doses with some of Israel’s allies.
He said it was done “in exchange for the things we have already received, through many contacts in various areas that I will not detail here,” Netanyahu said. “I think he buys goodwill.”
Israeli public broadcaster Kan said about 100,000 modern vaccines were being sent to about 15 allies.
They include Honduras, Guatemala, Hungary, Uganda and the Czech Republic, countries that have recognized Jerusalem as the capital of Israel or have expressed interest in opening diplomatic offices there after the relocation of the U.S. embassy to the city on 2018 by the Trump administration.
Chad, which established diplomatic ties with Israel in 2019, Mauritania, which is believed to be on the cusp of restoring relations, and several other African countries that have close security relations with Israel, including Ethiopia and Kenya, also appeared on the list.
Asked about Netanyahu using his vaccines as a diplomatic tool, Moderna declined to comment.
The Palestinians claim East Jerusalem, captured by Israel in the 1967 Middle East war and later annexed, as the capital of a future state. Competitive claims about the city have been at the center of decades of conflict and most of the international community says Jerusalem’s fate must be resolved through negotiations.
Netanyahu noted that Israel has also pledged to share some vaccines with the Palestinians. Israel has administered only 2,000 doses of Moderna to the internationally recognized Palestinian Authority for Inoculating Medical Workers in the West Bank.
Otherwise, the Palestinians have struggled to acquire their own vaccines. The Palestinian Authority received 10,000 doses of the Russian Sputnik V vaccine, while a rival of President Mahmoud Abbas this week delivered an additional 20,000 vaccines to the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip. after arranging delivery from the UAE.
Together, these vaccines will cover only a small fraction of the millions of Palestinians. The Palestinian Authority has said it expects to receive more vaccines through the World Health Organization’s COVAX program and other offers, but it is not yet clear when the drugs will arrive.
Wasel Abu Yusuf, a senior Palestinian official, accused Netanyahu of playing politics with a humanitarian issue.
“It is using the vaccines that some countries need to get political support for their policies, such as moving embassies to Jerusalem,” he said. “The amounts of vaccines that talk about Palestinians in the West Bank is very small.”
Inequality has drawn attention to the global disparity in obtaining vaccines between rich and poor countries and has provoked some international criticism.
Lawrence Gostin, a professor of global health law at Georgetown University, said it is understandable that Israel wants to take care of its own citizens first. But “at some point it becomes ethically grotesque,” he said.
He said that beyond having a moral responsibility to the Palestinians, it would be smart to help them.
“The reason it’s a smart thing is that it would earn Israel huge benefits in its reputation in the region and globally,” he said. “Not sharing the vaccine will not be forgotten because so many people die unnecessarily from preventable diseases.”
UN officials and human rights groups have expressed concerns on inequality and said Israel is an occupying power responsible for providing vaccines to the Palestinians.
Israel says that under the interim peace agreements of the 1990s it does not have that responsibility. Israel has vaccinated its own Arab population, including Palestinians in East Jerusalem annexed to Israel.
But Israeli public health experts have called on the government to share the vaccines, given widespread contact between Israelis and Palestinians. Tens of thousands of Palestinian workers work in Israel or its West Bank settlements.
The Biden administration has refrained from criticizing Israel, but has expressed support for sharing vaccines with the Palestinians. “We believe it is important for Palestinians to gain greater access to the COVID vaccine in the coming weeks,” State Department spokesman Ned Price said. “It is important for Israel, as well as the health and safety of Israel.
Netanyahu’s decision to share vaccines with allies has been set on fire at home. His main rival and governing partner, Defense Minister Benny Gantz, said Netanyahu made the decision unilaterally without deliberation or oversight.
“The fact that Netanyahu trades vaccines of Israeli citizens who were paid with their tax money without any responsibility shows that he thinks he runs a kingdom and not a state,” Gantz said this week.
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AP correspondents Laurie Kellman in Tel Aviv and Matthew Lee in Washington helped report.