Coronavirus vaccinations have started in the occupied West Bank after Israel transferred the first batch of a total of 5,000 doses to inoculate frontline Palestinian health workers, after coming under fire for refusing to share its vaccines with Palestinians. This is a West Bank resident commenting on the arrival of vaccines.

Aisha Salem: “The vaccine is good, but they are only giving it to the healthcare workers, not to the public.”

The Occupied Territories are also expecting to receive 37,000 doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine through the World Health Organization’s COVAX scheme in mid-February.

In the U.S., freshman New York Congressmember Jamaal Bowman called on Israel to vaccinate all Palestinians. He wrote, “As a Black man living in America, I know the feeling of being neglected by my government, and society, of feeling like a second-class citizen or not a citizen at all.”