Britain opposes WHO anti-Israel resolution
JEWISH COMMUNAL organisations have praised the government for voting against a World Health Organisation [WHO] resolution attacking Israel.
The UK was the only European country to do so at the WHO’s annual conference in Geneva.
The resolution — Agenda Item 19: “Health conditions in the occupied Palestinian territory, including east Jerusalem, and in the occupied Syrian Golan” — singled out Israel for criticism and included recommendations about access to health care for Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank.
In a statement, the UK mission to the United Nations in Geneva said it had voted against “the politicisation of the World Health Assembly.
“The reason we had this decision today was not because of the health needs of the people in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, important though they are”, the statement said.
“No, the reason we had this decision today was because of the political situation relating to the Occupied Palestinian Territories.
“We do not have decisions in the World Health Assembly relating to every conflict, or civil war, or political stalemate around the world. This is the only one”.
In March, Britain said it would vote against all future UN Human Rights Council resolutions on Israel’s conduct in the occupied territories unless the body ended its “disproportion and bias” against the Jewish state. The WHO is an agency within the United Nations.
“The WHO is one of the world’s most important technical agencies”, the UK’s statement continued.
“It should not be a place where we argue over geopolitics. If we politicize the WHO, we do so at our peril, and we do the cause of global health, and the health of our citizens, a grave disservice”.
Richard Verber, the senior vice-president of the Board of Deputies, praised the UK government “for taking a principled stand.
“The only resolution dealing with a specific country was aimed at Israel”, he said.
“In doing so, the UK rejected the politicisation of the important issue of health and the unacceptable antiIsrael bias present in UN bodies.”
Simon Johnson, chief executive of the Jewish Leadership Coalition, said the WHO’s resolution had “singled Israel out for criticism.
“We are grateful to HM government for the vote against yesterday’s resolution”, he said.
“For [the UK] to be the only European country to vote against the resolution confirms the Government’s determination to stand up against the obsessive campaign to delegitimise Israel in international bodies.”
ISRAEL’S hopes for a better relationship with the UN World Health Organisation were given a boost this week after its preferred candidate, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, was elected as the body’s new director-general.
Dr Tedros, as he is known, is the former Ethiopian health minister and has promised major reform of the WHO, which regularly singles out Israel for condemnation.
Israel’s ambassador to the UN in Geneva, Aviva Raz Schechter, said she was “looking forward to working with Dr Tedros to improve health access around the world, and fighting the politicisation of World Health Organisation”.
Last week the ambassador claimed that — under pressure from Syria — the WHO had “decided to hide a positive report on Israel from the public eye”.
Instead, in a resolution cosponsored by Syria, the WHO annual assembly targeted Israel over “health conditions in the occupied Palestinian territory”.
The resolution was also backed by the Palestinians, together with Algeria, Cuba, Ecuador, Egypt, Kuwait, Libya, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Tunisia and Venezuela.
Hillel Neuer, executive director of the monitoring group, UN Watch, said: “The UN should reject the hijacking of its world health agenda by Arab regimes and allied dictatorships.”