By: Sara Kovač / Nova24tv
RTV Slovenia published an article on its web portal MMC, entitled “The vaccination campaign reveals the essence of the Israeli apartheid regime.” In the article, the author states that Israel, which is currently the leading country in terms of the covid vaccination rate, is supposedly excluding millions of Palestinians from its plans for vaccination, which could not be further from the truth. In addition, the author also refers to Israel as the “regime of Jewish domination,” and the “apartheid regime.” The article was written by the radial supporter of terrorism, Boris Vasev.
One of our readers pointed out the biased reporting and spreading of the false news, and he also emphasised that there are signs of slander and insulting accusations in the article in question. The Criminal Code of the Republic of Slovenia defines both “defamation” (in accordance with Article 159 of the Criminal Code) and “insulting accusations” (in accordance with Article 160 of the Criminal Code) as criminal offences, and Article 164 stipulates that these criminal offences also apply to cases where these actions have been carried out with the intention of “disgracing a foreign country or an international organisation.”
The article states that the Israeli authorities allegedly deliberately and consciously denied the people of the Palestinian National Authority the option of getting vaccinated, and the author of the article describes Israel as a “regime of Jewish domination” and an “apartheid regime,” which “denies access to equal healthcare on the basis of ethnicity or race.” “In my opinion, these are very serious accusations, that should not just recklessly be published on the official pages of the national media outlet, especially without being verified,” our reader criticised the article.
It is not true that the Israeli authorities did not offer access to the appropriate vaccine to residents living in the Palestinian Authority. According to The Jerusalem Post, the Israeli authorities offered a sufficient amount of doses of the vaccine to the Palestinian authorities; however, the Palestinian authorities declined their offer and said that they would provide the necessary amount of the vaccine by themselves and also organise the vaccination for the entire population of the Palestinian territories. Several sources, including the esteemed Bloomberg, also report that the Palestinian authorities rejected not only the Israeli aid but also the aid which the other Arab states offered to them.
Our reader critically pointed out that it is more than obvious that the purpose of the MMC article was not to inform the public about the current state of vaccination in Israel and the Palestinian territories. Instead, the purpose of the article was to shame a foreign country and accuse it of apartheid politics and racial, ethnics or religious discrimination. When describing the actual current situation, the author should have been truthful and impartial, which cannot be said for the article in question.