Israel failed in a 7-15 vote to remove an annual anti-Israel text from the agenda of the World Health Organization’s World Health Assembly set to convene at the end of May.
“This stand-alone item is not about the health of Palestinians, it is about politicizing health,” Israel’s Ambassador to the UN Meirav Eilon Shahar told the WHO Executive Board.
Israel, which now holds a three-year term on the 34 member board, had asked it to eliminate the stand-alone agenda item which focused solely on Israeli treatment of the Palestinians in the West Bank, Gaza and east Jerusalem. It also
takes Israel to task for its treatment of Syrians in Israel’s Golan Heights.
But when the matter came to a vote Tuesday, the Executive Board decided to keep the matter on the agenda.
“Our aim was to ensure that the World Health Assembly keeps its focus on health not politics, this is why Israel disassociates itself from this decision,” Shahar said.
“What we discussed here was detached from reality,” she added.
Those that stood with Israel on the issue were: the United States, Germany, Austria, Australia, Columbia and the United Kingdom.
The UK said that Israel is the only country against whom a resolution is issued.
Both the United States and Australia said that the inclusion of the resolution, the text of which has yet to be proposed, unfairly targeted Israel.
“Australia does not support one sided resolutions in multilateral forums,” its envoy said.
Those who opposed the issues were: Argentina, Bangladesh, Botswana, Chile, China, Djibouti, the United Arab Emirates, Russia, Guyana, Indonesia, Oman, Singapore, Sudan, Tajikistan and Tunisia.