Six human rights organizations petitioned the High Court of Justice to demand that Israel take immediate steps to ensure a regular supply of vaccines to the Palestinian population under occupation in the West Bank and Gaza.

The petitioners also demanded that the state transfer its surplus vaccines to Palestinians immediately.

The petition was submitted by Physicians for Human Rights Israel, HaMoked: Center for the Defence 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. The organizations emphasized that Israel has legal, moral and ethical obligations towards the Palestinians, deriving from its occupation and ongoing control of Gaza and the West Bank.

“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,” wrote 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. This situation cannot be justified in any way, and it violates both binding Israeli and international law as well as medical ethics, morality, and sheer humanity.”