PA daily op-ed claims Israel is spreading Coronavirus among Palestinians

Excerpt of an op-ed by Omar Hilmi Al-Ghoul, regular columnist for the official PA daily

Headline: “Colonialism is behind the Coronavirus”

“The [PA] leadership and government have fulfilled an important role in limiting the Coronavirus’ spread in the territory of the State of Palestine that was occupied in 1967. Applying the emergency law at the beginning of March [2020] and renewing it at the beginning of April has had an important role in the relative control over the situation…

However,there is a basic problem that the political leadership and its wise government are unable to overcome or ignore… and it is the Israeli colonialism, whose very presence on the Palestinian land constitutes a political, security, economic, educational, and health danger.Why? And how?

1. Because it is hanging over the land, preventing freedom of movement and control over the land, the residents, and the national interests. It is limiting the ability of the medical and security forces and other forces to fulfill their role as needed and according to the World Health Organization’s (WHO) standards.
2. The presence of the Israeli settlements on the land and the fact that they are among the Palestinian cities, villages, and refugee camps iscontributing to the epidemic’s quicker spread among the Palestinians…
3. The fact that the Israeli army and security forces are deployed in the Palestinian territories is one of the causes of the virus’ quick spread. Everyone remembers the video in which a number of colonialist soldiers are seen spitting at night on Palestinian cars in order to contaminate them with the Coronavirus (apparently refers to a video showing one soldier apparently spitting on the ground near a car –Ed.).
4. The Palestinian laborers who work in the Israeli settlements and within the 1948 territories (i.e., Palestinian term for Israel) also constitute bearers of the epidemic.”