Surprise? PA falsely blames Israel for Coronavirus spike while inventing an alternate reality - by Maurice Hirsch, Adv

One thing is clear: For the PA, the Coronavirus crisis is just another excuse to promote hatred of Israel, even to the detriment of the international fight against the virus.

Maurice Hirsch, Adv..
Palestinian Media Watch..
21 July '20..

Since the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic, the PA has inverted reality. The PA has repeatedly blamed Israel for the spread of the Coronavirus, never telling its people that Israel has given hundreds of tons of equipment as well as ongoing medical training to the PA to prevent the spread of the virus, as reported by Palestinian Media Watch.

As the PA is experiencing a second wave of the virus, the PA has initiated a second wave of libels coming from different PA leaders.

One example is the libel of Chairman of the PA-funded Prisoners’ Club Qadura Fares, who accused Israel of deliberately trying to spread the virus within the PA:

“[Israel] is striving to spread the Coronavirus via the invasion of soldiers who are likely to be sick into Palestinian homes and mixing with the civilians and prisoners.” 

 [Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, July 17, 2020]

Another example was delivered by Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Muhammad Shtayyeh, who gave two different explanations for the rise in the number of infected with the virus. On the one hand, Shtayyeh resorted to the PA’s standard excuse – blame Israel. On the other, he attributed the blame to Palestinian weddings and mourners’ tents.

Israel is to blame, according to Shtayyeh, due to the movement of people and goods from Israel and Jordan across the 1949 armistice lines:

“The [PA] government will send a request to the UNTSO (UN Truce Supervision Organization) UN forces to supervise the movement at the crossings located on the June 4, 1967 borders (i.e., 1949 armistice lines) in order to control the entry and exit to and from the State of Palestine… The main reason for the severe trend of increase of the Coronavirus… is the fact that the Palestinian [PA] Security Forces are being prevented [by Israel] from fulfilling their role and supervising the movement at these crossings… The fact that we do not control the crossings and borders – in addition to the occupation’s measures – is the main reason for the increase in the number of those infected with the Coronavirus.” 

[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, July 7, 2020]

These statements are a product of the PA’s desire to promote hatred of Israel and inventing an alternative reality, in which the 1949 armistice lines are “borders” of the “State of Palestine,” that the PA must control.

Firstly, the 1949 armistice line between Israel and Jordan was never a “border”, as the website of the UNTSO clearly states:

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