Polio, Gaza, and the Genocide Accusation
Israel’s work with the WHO last year to get over a million Gazan children vaccinated against polio gives the lie to accusations of genocide.
It would be impossible to list the number of politicians, “activists,” NGO leaders, and government officials who have accused Israel of genocide.
But here is a fact that none of them ever seem to consider, and that gives the lie to their accusation: Last year Israel helped the World Health Organization vaccinate Gaza’s children against polio.
Here’s what Reuters reported last November 6th:
The Israeli military said on Wednesday aid organizations had completed a second polio vaccination round for children in Gaza, administering more than 1.1 million vaccinations in different areas of the enclave, achieving 90% coverage….
The polio campaign began on Sept. 1 after the World Health Organization (WHO) confirmed in August that a baby was partially paralysed by the type 2 polio virus, the first such case in the territory in 25 years….
COGAT, the military agency that deals with Palestinian civilian affairs, has been working with international agencies to coordinate the campaign, which requires two vaccine doses per child.
On Tuesday, Rik Peeperkorn, the WHO representative in the Palestinian Territories, said the mass evacuations from areas in northern Gaza where the Israeli military has been operating for more than a month, had made it difficult to estimate the number of children who might be missed in the north.
The first round of the polio vaccination campaign, which began on Sept. 1, reached its target of 90% of children under 10 years of age, according to the United Nations.
This is a simple point and does not require belaboring. Does the administration of polio vaccine to over a million children sound like genocide, or concern about the health of children?
The accusation is of course made and spread in part by Hamas and its direct sympathizers, other terrorist groups, Iran, and other enemies of Israel—but it is then propagated by people in the United States, Europe, and elsewhere who act out of malice or ignorance.
They should be asked how they can believe that charge against a government that in the middle of a war ensured that all those children could be vaccinated against polio.