Israel maintains a violent military occupation of the occupied territories including the West Bank and Jerusalem and has failed to meet its obligation under international law, as an occupying power, to provide medical supplies to Palestinians. During this coronavirus epidemic, this is effectively an Israeli-imposed death sentence for thousands of Palestinians.
Currently, Israel refuses to provide any testing for the coronavirus for Palestinians who comprise 20 per cent of Israel's population. This is blatant apartheid-style discrimination. It is also contrary to good public health policy.
More recently, the Israeli mayor of Jerusalem, Moshe Leon, accused the Israeli government of neglecting the equipment needed by the two small Palestinian hospitals in East Jerusalem. This, too, is another example of Israel's apartheid policies, even in the time of a pandemic.
These Israeli policies are crimes against humanity.
Richard Deaton,
Stanley Bridge