Published:
May 14, 2021
CFJ Colorado
“Perhaps more urgently, the entanglement of Palestinians and Israelis – with Israeli settlers and soldiers on Palestinian lands and Palestinian workers entering Israel daily – should have made a clear and obvious health case to Israeli authorities. Even Israeli public health experts called for Israel to vaccinate the entire Palestinian population. But instead of implementing a comprehensive vaccination plan for the Israeli-occupied Palestinian population, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu decided to send thousands of doses around the world as rewards to countries that agreed to move embassies to Jerusalem and for other political considerations. This cynical vaccine diplomacy plan was frozen almost immediately due to legal challenges and significant global criticism. Israel faced further criticism when Israeli politicians delayed, and debated blocking completely, a small shipment of vaccines from Palestinians in the West Bank to Gaza, citing a desire to extract political concessions in exchange."
Beit Ummar
What happened during this war was really terrible mostly in Sheikh Jarrah and Gaza. Gaza was destroyed. The situation was very bad here in Beit Ummar and the West Bank in general. Israeli soldiers were coming into the town daily even more than once a day. The soldiers caused many troubles for those who were coming to or leaving the town. They were spread everywhere on the entrance of Beit Ummar and on the balconies or roofs of citizens' houses, and their guns were always pointed at people. To be honest, we didn't fear them at all; even the youngest went out to resist. Yes, Gaza was destroyed; many people were killed, many arrested; and there was always tension - but our voice reached many countries around the world. Huge numbers of people became our supporters and saw the truth. Israel definitely had not expected that or the destruction that happened in their living area.
Currently, it's not as bad as before, but we don't know what might happen later.
