Israel

Workers unload containers carrying the second shipment of the Pfizer/BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine from a courier aircraft transporting some 67,860 doses of the vaccine at Tocumen International Airport in Panama City on early February 17, 2021.(Luis ACOSTA / AFP)

The Sputnik V doses were “being transferred from the Palestinian Authority (in the West Bank) to the Gaza Strip in accordance with the PA’s request and the approval of the (Israeli) political echelon”, said the Israeli military department responsible for civil affairs in the occupied Palestinian territories (COGAT).

It added that “the vaccine shipment is now making its way to the Erez crossing” that connects Israel to the blockaded Gaza Strip, a enclave which is controlled by the Islamist group Hamas.

Both the PA and Hamas, which have said the doses will be given to frontline healthcare workers, had condemned Israel for refusing to allow the shipment to enter Gaza on Monday.

The PA called on the World Health Organization to “condemn Israel” for the obstruction and urged it “to hold (Israel) fully responsible for the dangers arising from preventing the entry of vaccines into the Gaza Strip.”

Hamas spokesman Hazem Qassem had blasted Israel’s blockage as a “violation of all international laws and humanitarian standards.”

COGAT said on Monday that a political decision was required before it could allow vaccines to enter Gaza, where Israel has fought three wars against Hamas, which took control of the enclave in 2007.

The PA is expecting some two million doses ordered from various manufacturers, in addition to vaccines from the UN-backed Covax programme, set up to help less wealthy nations procure vaccines.

The PA has said it will share its procurement with Hamas.

AFP

Thousands of Palestinians took to the streets of various cities on Thursday to protest on the 100th anniversary of Britain’s Balfour Declaration, which helped lead to Israel’s creation and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas used the occasion to denounce the declaration, writing in a newspaper opinion piece that “the creation of a homeland for one people resulted in the dispossession and continuing persecution of another”.

Several Palestinian leaders have called on Britain to apologise for the 67-word declaration that said it viewed “with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people”.

Around 4,000 people gathered in the West Bank city of Nablus, where effigies supposed to represent British Prime Minister Theresa May and former British leader Arthur Balfour were set ablaze.

A few thousand more gathered in Gaza and hundreds in Ramallah. Smaller rallies were held in the southern West Bank city of Hebron, where protesters burned a British flag.

Several dozen Palestinians also protested outside the British consulate in Jerusalem.

In Nablus, marchers chanted “Oh the English colonisers, we want an apology from you.”

In Ramallah signs called Balfour “the promise of he who doesn’t own to those who don’t deserve” — a common expression in Arabic for the Balfour Declaration.

Some protesters held black flags calling for Palestinian refugees to be allowed the right to return, as they marched from Ramallah’s Arafat Square to a nearby British cultural office.

“Balfour promised to establish the Israeli entity and its result is everything the Palestinian people still suffer from today, such as displacement, destruction and pain,” said Abu Haitham Amro, 70, who was carrying a Palestinian flag.

In Gaza, more than 3,000 people took part in a march from a square in Gaza City to the local United Nations headquarters.

Hopes for solution fade

The Balfour Declaration is celebrated among Israelis, who see it as a major step toward the founding of their state in 1948 at a time when Jews were facing persecution elsewhere.

But the war surrounding Israel’s creation also led to some 750,000 Palestinians either fleeing or being expelled from their homes — what they call the “Nakba”, or catastrophe.

Senior Palestinian official Mahmoud Al-Alul told AFP in Ramallah the British government should apologise.

“It is unprecedented for criminals to celebrate their crime. That the British prime minister insists on celebrating this means they persist in the oppression of the Palestinian people.”

In 1967, Israel occupied the West Bank, including east Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip in the Six-Day War. It has since annexed east Jerusalem and the occupation of the West Bank continues.

Hopes for a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict are greatly diminishing.

“The Palestinians say that the Balfour Declaration was a tragedy. It wasn’t a tragedy,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Wednesday before departing for London, where he is marking the anniversary.

“What’s been tragic is their refusal to accept this 100 years later. I hope they change their mind, because if they do they can move forward finally to making peace between our two peoples.”

Abbas wrote in Britain’s Guardian newspaper: “We have endorsed the two-state solution for the past 30 years, a solution that becomes increasingly impossible with every passing day.

“As long as the state of Israel continues to be celebrated and rewarded, rather than held accountable to universal standards for its continued violations of international law, it will have no incentive to end the occupation,” he added, referring in particular to Israeli settlement building.

Israel is said to be the number one nation in the world in deploying Covid-19 vaccines, followed by the UAE.

Israel has administered at least one dose of the U.S.’s Pfizer vaccine to more than 46 percent of its nine million population, and the risk of illness from Covid-19 has dropped 95.8 percent among people who received both shots, Reuters reported.

On February 21, Israel reopened large swathes of its economy with the government saying the start of a return to routine has been enabled by Covid-19 vaccines administered to almost half the population.

“I had two doses of vaccine at the end of January and mid February and it felt good,” said Doan Thi Nga, a Vietnamese living in Jerusalem.

She said she suffered some tiredness and pain in the arm after receiving the shot, but these reactions disappeared the next day. She can return to normal life and has got the “green pass” from the authorities, meaning she can go to public spaces such as markets and restaurants; and travel to other places.

Nga feels safer now. Three months ago, when her family moved to Israel from Singapore, she was concerned about the way Israelis dealt with the pandemic, which “was not as good as” the Singaporeans.

Pham Thanh Lan, a spa owner in Ramat Yishay, a town in the Northern District of Israel, also said she felt fine after two vaccine doses. She too, experienced brief symptoms of fatigue and pain in the injected arm. She is happy now that she can get back to work normally and go anywhere she wants.

“I don’t worry anymore. I hope that the vaccine will have the highest effectiveness.”

Awaiting his second shot early March, Nguyen Thanh Long, a technician working on a smart farm in Israel’s Beit She’an City, said he had mild ache in the arm for a day after the first shot.

Long also said he believed vaccination was the best way for a country to contain Covid-19 and open the economy up. He said there was a minority in Israel who have doubts about the vaccine. The government has asked vaccinated people to continue wearing masks to limit transmission risks.

Nguyen Thanh Long receives the first Covid-19 vaccine jab on February 16, 2021. Photo courtesy of Nguyen Thanh Long.

Long and Lan felt that the small size of population was why Israel became the quickest country in carrying out vaccinations. A good relationship with the U.S. also helped Israel to speed up vaccine purchases, they felt.

Covid-19 positive after first jab

La Thi Hong Anh, a nail salon worker in Dubai, said she tested positive for the novel coronavirus after getting her first shot of the Sinopharm vaccine at the beginning of February. She had mild fever and had a negative result 10 days later. The second jab was administered several days ago.

“I will not have to take the Covid-19 test before traveling or quarantine anymore, which is good for me,” she said.

Tina Do, another Vietnamese living in Dubai, also experienced some pain in the arm receiving the vaccine shots. The pain lasted three days.

Tina said she expected the vaccine can bring back normalcy if people remained vigilant, maintained prevention measures like wearing marks, washing hands and following social distancing rules.

Suffering no ache or fever after two doses of the Sinopharm vaccine at the end of January, Nguyen Hai Anh, a sales executive with a sugar trading company in Dubai, said he was living a normal life and had got an “E sign” from authorities, 28 days after the second jab. The E sign certifies that people have received two doses of the vaccine.

“I see no abnormal signs,” he said, noting that UAE’s leaders and billionaires have joined the vaccination program.

He attributed UAE’s high ranking in the world vaccination plan to the country’s early approval for China’s vaccine and local airlines’ capacity in vaccine transportation. The majority of people in the UAE welcome the Covid-19 vaccines, but he’d heard that people who registered late were finding it more and more difficult to get vaccinated.

Missing home

In Israel, Long expressed optimism that things can return to normal “in the short term,” when the number of people getting vaccinated increases. As a result, Israel would do better in controlling the pandemic, leading to economic opportunities for citizens.

However, Lan said she was quite cautious about that prospect because there were still some groups of people who do not rigorously follow prevention measures.

Nga also said she felt individual awareness plays a crucial role in the collective effort to stop the pandemic from spreading.

“Unfortunately, we have not had a way to end Covid-19,” she said.

Hong Anh in the UAE was more anxious, saying the country does not strictly quarantine people who test positive for the novel coronavirus. The possible reasons are that there is a high number of migrant workers and most people in UAE only suffer mild symptoms. Some stay at home, but some still go out and that makes her feel unsafe.

Hong Anh said she looks forward to returning to Vietnam.

Hai Anh concurred, saying the number of infections in the UAE keeps increasing because of “open activities,” from malls to borders. Hospitals are only meant for severe cases.

He said he wants to return to Vietnam as he’d planned before Covid-19 and hoped that the Vietnamese government would repatriate its citizens soon.

“Vaccinated people should be given priority,” he said.