Israel, Palestine to work on joint Ebola response plan

Israeli and Palestinian officials met over the weekend to develop a coordinated plan to prevent the Ebola virus spreading to the territories they control, local media reported.

Though the coordination may appear unusual, Israel and the Palestinian Authority (PA), responsible for governing the West Bank, have been working together on security matters since the implementation of the Oslo Accords nearly a decade ago. 

Representatives from the PA attended a meeting led by the Israeli Coordinator of Government Activities in Judea and Samaria, Major General Yoav Mordechai to discuss the spread of the deadly virus, according to Israeli news outlet Arutz Sheva.

Israel’s civil administration said in a statement, “updates were exchanged between the parties, and transfer of information was agreed upon by way of additional meetings to take place in order to further track the issue.”

Palestinian officials said that contacts with Israeli officials regarding Ebola are "within the context of WHO's instructions on fighting this virus, which is a global task," said Assad Ramlawi from the Palestinian health ministry said according to Maan News, a Palestinian news website. “There are common crossings and we have contacts on this, nothing more nothing less.”

Although Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories share borders, the movement of people and goods is controlled by the Israeli military.

More than 4,000 people have died so far in the Ebola epidemic in West Africa, according to the latest World Health Organization data. Almost all those deaths have been in the three worst-hit countries of Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea. 

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday held a second meeting to discuss his government’s strategy to prevent Ebola from entering the borders. He labeled Ebola as one of three top threats to Israel including “terrorism” and the so-called “illegal infiltrators” — a term used to describe African asylum seekers, Haaretz, an Israeli news website, reported.

Netanyahu said extra screening would be imposed on anyone traveling to Israel from African countries hardest-hit by the virus. Officials are considering deploying infrared camera fever monitoring in the future, Arnon Afek, director-general of the Israeli Health Ministry

“Israel is prepared to stop, as much as is possible, the entry of Ebola patients into our borders, as part of our general efforts to defend our borders from illegal infiltrators and terror,” the prime minister said according to Jerusalem Post, an Israeli newspaper.

With wire services