Adalah – The Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel submitted a letter to Israeli health officials calling for setting up COVID-19 vaccine stations for Palestinians living in two areas of Jerusalem in which Israel holds the responsibility.

Kufr Aqab neighborhoods and Shufat refugee camp were illegally annexed and fall within the boundaries of Israel’s Jerusalem municipality, but are located behind Israel’s separation wall. Israel has not established any COVID-19 vaccination stations to serve the 150,000 residents of the two areas.

Adalah Attorney Suhad Bishara called on Israeli health authorities, including the Israeli Health Ministry and a number of Israeli health maintenance organizations charged with administering the COVID-19 vaccines to the public, to take immediate action to provide COVID-19 vaccinations for the residents of these two neighborhoods hard hit during the pandemic.

"The two neighborhoods suffer from extremely high rates of overcrowding and living conditions conducive to facilitating the spread of the virus. Likewise, both areas suffer from poor infrastructure," the letter said.

"The location of both neighborhoods beyond Israel’s separation wall makes it extremely difficult for residents to travel to vaccination centers that have been established inside Jerusalem," it added. "Such a journey – which can typically take up to two hours in each direction, involves passing through strictly-controlled Israeli military checkpoints and, for many, travel via crowded public transportation – also increases the risk of infection."

"Palestinian women, children, and the elderly are particularly harmed by this series of barriers between Kufr Aqab and Shufat and vaccination centers in Jerusalem."

Given the lack of access to Israeli-administered COVID-19 tests in these two neighborhoods over the past year, Palestinian residents have suffered from a skyrocketing rate of infection and morbidity.

Adalah confirmed that Israel is violating the right to health of Palestinian residents of Jerusalem by failing to provide adequate access to COVID-19 vaccines.