Riyad al-Maliki, the Palestinian Authority (PA) official in charge of foreign affairs, on Monday accused Israel of committing "crimes" against the Palestinian people and claimed that this is a direct result of the immunity it enjoys and the non-execution of justice in the international arena.
Speaking at a UN Human Rights Council meeting in Geneva, Maliki accused Israel of exploiting the coronavirus pandemic to establish its “settlement colonialism” while renouncing its commitment as an "occupying power" to provide vaccine doses to the Palestinian Arab people or to allow vaccine doses to be transferred to the Gaza Strip.
His remarks come despite the fact that Israel has allowed the transfer of vaccine doses against coronavirus to PA-assigned territories and also permitted the transfer of additional vaccine doses from the Palestinian Authority in Ramallah to the Gaza Strip.
Moreover, Israel has transferred thousands of vaccine doses to the Palestinian Authority and also announced that it intends to vaccinate about 100,000 Palestinian Arabs working in Israel.
All this is done by Israel even though, as former Ambassador Alan Baker pointed out in a recent interview with Arutz Sheva, Israel is in no way obligated to deliver vaccines to Palestinian Arabs or to residents of Gaza.
The Palestinian Authority has acted independently in the procurement of vaccine doses and has signed agreements with four companies to supply them. In addition, the Palestinian Authority is expected to receive vaccine doses from the World Health Organization.