On Friday, Jerusalem announced that it had reached an agreement with Ramallah to give the Palestinian Authority (PA) over 1 million coronavirus vaccines that are set to expire over the course of the next several weeks. In exchange, the PA would give Israel vaccines that it plans to receive from Pfizer in September. The deal would prevent the soon-to-expire vaccines from going to waste while ensuring that they go to Palestinians who very much need them. A few hours later, the PA announced that the deal was off. Khaled Abu Toameh writes:
The Palestinian Authority’s hasty decision on Friday to cancel the initial Pfizer vaccine-exchange deal with Israel came shortly after a public outcry, particularly on social media, over the expiration date of the doses. . . . Judging from the reactions of many Palestinians to the Pfizer vaccine-exchange agreement, they seem convinced that corrupt senior PA officials were in collusion with the Israeli authorities to provide out-of-date vaccines to the Palestinian public. . . . Last March, a similar public outcry erupted after Palestinians learned that the PA had diverted some COVID-19 vaccines to senior Palestinian officials, journalists, and personalities affiliated with the PA.
One reason many Palestinians have been outraged over the past 48 hours is because they first learned about the Pfizer vaccine-exchange deal from the Israeli media. Israeli media outlets have long been serving as a main source of information for the Palestinians about what is happening in the PA. . . . The PA’s president Mahmoud Abbas [has already been facing] widespread criticism for his decision to call off the Palestinian parliamentary and presidential elections, which were supposed to take place on May 22 and July 31, respectively.
The vaccine agreement with Israel was supposed to boost the PA’s already tarnished reputation and show that it is doing its utmost to provide the doses to the Palestinians. . . . But the botched deal has turned out to be one of the worst PR disasters for the PA, whose leaders are currently working to limit the damage and prevent their critics and political rivals from cashing in on the “scandal.”
In truth, the vaccines bore expiration dates of June 30 or later, and three countries have since approached Israel in an attempt to secure the doses rejected by the PA.
Read more on Jerusalem Post: https://www.jpost.com/opinion/why-the-pa-scrapped-the-vaccine-deal-with-israel-analysis-671563