How the Abraham Accords Can Help Provide Coronavirus Vaccines for Palestinians https://mosaicmagazine.com/picks/israel-zionism/2021/03/how-the-abraham-accords-can-help-provide-coronavirus-vaccines-for-palestinians/

March 5, 2021 | Michael Koplow
About the author: Michael Koplow is the policy director of the Israel Policy Forum and an analyst of Middle Eastern politics.

Despite the loud complaints from the usual circles, the Oslo treaty makes clear that the Palestinian Authority (PA), not Israel, is responsible for overseeing the provision of healthcare in the areas under its control. The PA, for its part, confirmed this by rejecting an Israeli offer to provide it with the coronavirus vaccine. Yet it is in Israel’s interest to see that the pandemic comes to an end in the West Bank and Gaza. Michael Koplow argues that its recent peace agreements with Arab nations provide an ideal pathway for doing so:

The United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, and Morocco are in a perfect situation to help the Palestinians, demonstrate that normalizing relations with Israel is not only about their own narrow interests, and help Israel with its own reputational issues, all while overcoming the primary constraints on the Israeli and Palestinian sides to resolving the vaccination situation on their own. If states that have diplomatic relations with Israel agree to serve as middlemen, Israel can use them as a passthrough to provide vaccines that will go to Palestinians, and Palestinians can accept them directly from non-Israeli actors.

Israel [would thus] not have to concede any absolute legal obligation to provide healthcare in the West Bank, while the Palestinians can maintain the legal fiction that they are not bending to Israel when it comes to vaccines. [Such a plan helps to solve] the actual problem of how to vaccinate Palestinians, removes the harsh spotlight on Israel with regard to the vaccine issue, and allows normalizing Arab states to take credit for breaking the logjam while demonstrating how their relationships with Israel can in fact benefit the Palestinians in real ways.

The U.S. should also be involved in kickstarting this process. The Abraham Accords were delivered with heavy American involvement, and were sealed on the back of American commitments. The Biden administration has spoken of its support for the normalization agreements and its desire to strengthen and expand them, and this would be a great way to start.

Read more on Israel Policy Forum: https://israelpolicyforum.org/2021/03/04/vaccines-are-a-perfect-opportunity-for-the-abraham-accords-to-shine/