UIPDATE: Israel hopes to restore vaccine echange deal after Palestinians reject initial doses for being too old

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Mon, 2021-06-21 16:50 — mike kraft

Israel struggles to restore vaccine swap deal after Palestinians reject doses for being too old Some 100,000 doses of the Pfizer vaccine delivered to the West Bank on Friday are headed for the trash because of their imminent expiration. Shira Rubin Washington Post

TEL AVIV — Israeli officials are working to revive talks to deliver vaccine doses to the Palestinian Authority after a deal Friday was suddenly called off by authority officials, who said the doses were too close to their expiration date and did not meet their standards.

Some 5 million Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza are still without sufficient vaccine supplies as shipments from other sources continue to lag, while Israel is mostly returning to pre-pandemic life.

The announcement and cancellation of the deal has given rise to conspiracy theories and further damaged the low standing of the Palestinian Authority among its people.

On Friday, Israeli officials celebrated the finalization of the three-way deal between the two governments and Pfizer in which Israel would ship more than 1 million doses of its vaccine to the Palestinian Authority in exchange for a similar number of doses to be delivered back to Israel later this year. ...

Israeli officials said the move marked the beginning of a chapter of re-engagement between Israel and the Palestinians after a dozen years under right-wing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Israeli Health Minister Nitzan Horowitz tweeted on Friday that the “vaccine exchange is in the interest of all parties” and that he hoped it would promote “cooperation between Israel and her Palestinian neighbors.” ...

But hours later, Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh scrapped the deal, saying the first 100,000 Pfizer doses were due to expire at the end of the month, which was too soon.

Palestinian Health Minister Mai al-Kaila said health officials who inspected the vaccines found they “did not meet standards and so we decided to return them.”

The Israeli Health Ministry said it would not accept returned doses. If they were not used by the Palestinian Authority, officials said, they would be thrown out.

The vaccine exchange had been in the works for several months under Netanyahu. It had been made clear to all sides that the first doses shipped out would be the first to expire, as is also protocol in Israel, according to an Israeli official who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter.

The official said Israel had also offered to donate syringes and other medical equipment to assist with the inoculation campaign, but the authority refused the offer.

After the deal was canceled Friday, rumors circulated on social media that Israel, in collusion with the authority, had been trying to “poison” Palestinians with expired doses. Palestinian opposition activists are calling for an independent investigation into the deal and its co-signers.

“We can buy vaccines ourselves, and we do not need Israel,” said a Fatah official who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive matter. He said the announcement might have cost the already deeply unpopular authority more legitimacy in its vaccine campaign. ...

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