Libel: Even when Israel gives Palestinian prisoners Coronavirus vaccines, it is committing “war crimes” and “abusing” them – PA TV libel
Text on screen:“The prisoners are experiencing disastrous situations as a result of the ongoing abuse of them and the rise in the number of Coronavirus patients (sic., see note below regarding the PA libel on medical abuse of Palestinian prisoners)”
Official PA TV reporter: “We are not about to tell a story that isn’t real. It’s true that the occupation is preventing every camera lens from documenting the war crimes that are being carried out in the prisons, but the drawers of the human rights institutions are full to the brink with documentation of these crimes… We will move to a more complicated topic: the Coronavirus epidemic. Three-hundred and thirty-five prisoners were verified [as having the Coronavirus]; after the ink of the human rights institutions dried as they contacted and wrote to the prison management so that it will provide preventive and safety measures. [The prison management] responded by ignoring them. It is saddening that there is not even a clear and correct version of what is happening in the dark rooms, whose darkness exceeds the suffering from the Coronavirus and its severe symptoms, such as transferring a number of prisoners to the hospitals and afterwards bringing them back without receiving intensive medical treatment. Khaled Ghizan (i.e., life-sentence prisoner released in 2011 Shalit prisoner exchange deal before being rearrested in 2014; P MW was unable to determine the nature of his crimes), who has been imprisoned for more than 22 years, was brought back from Soroka Hospital despite the drop in the percentage of oxygen in his blood. With what? With an oxygen tank. And where? In the prison, which worsened his health to the point of serious danger… Seventy-five percent of the prisoners have received the vaccine, and 25% were prevented [from receiving it] due to medical issues they have that contradict [provision of] the vaccine, which was not subjected first and foremost to the supervision of a neutral committee, [a vaccine] about which the truth is not known, and which there is no conclusive evidence whether it is the appropriate vaccine or not. And there is an exclamation mark here regarding the occupation not agreeing to the presence of a neutral committee of the World Health Organization (WHO), the Red Cross, and the Palestinian [PA] Ministry of Health that would supervise this vaccine and the vaccination process. Here the following questions comes up: Would it not have been logical in these difficult health circumstances and the danger threatening all the prisoners to also vaccinate those who were not infected with the virus?”
Libel on medical abuse of Palestinian prisoners - The PA claims that Israel abuses Palestinian prisoners through medical neglect, medical experiments, and by intentionally infecting them with diseases. However, the International Red Cross regularly visits these prisoners and has not documented or accused Israel of any of these claims. Likewise, lists of demands occasionally issued by the prisoners during hunger strikes—such as during one in 2011—include no demands relating to these claims. PMW has documented prisoners talking about how they "lack nothing" in the prisons and that "the worst thing about Israeli prison" is riding in a prison vehicle that has no padding on the seat. When PMW contacted the Israeli Ministry of Health in 2007 regarding PA claims of medical experiments on prisoners, the ministry responded: "Clinical testing on prisoners in prison was never approved, never performed, and is most certainly not taking place at present."