Rights groups petition High Court, demanding Israel hand Palestinians vaccines

Six Israeli and Palestinian human rights organizations have petitioned the High Court of Justice, demanding that Israel take immediate steps to ensure regular supply of vaccines to the Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza.

The petitioners also demand that the state transfer its surplus vaccines to the Palestinians “immediately.”

The organizations behind the petition are Physicians for Human Rights Israel; HaMoked: Center for the Defense of the Individual; Al Mezan Center for Human Rights; Gisha – Legal Center for Freedom of Movement; Adalah: The Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel; and Rabbis for Human Rights.

They cite the skyrocketing COVID-19 infections among Palestinians while Israel, where most have been inoculated, enjoys a steep drop in morbidity.

“The respondents’ current policy and their failure to ensure that the entire population is vaccinated violates Palestinian inhabitants’ basic rights to life and bodily integrity, and represents an ongoing injustice,” write the petitioners. “Evidently, the Palestinian Authority has an insufficient number of vaccines, whereas in what is practically the same area, the population of Israeli citizens and residents is almost fully vaccinated, apart from those who decline it.”