Some of the world's worst human rights abusers condemned Israel for allegedly harming Palestinian and Syrian health rights, during the World Health Organization's Thursday meeting on the global response to the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic.
According to a UN Watch report, among the 30 delegations who blamed Israel for "allegedly violating the health rights of Palestinians and Syrians in the Golan Heights" - are Venezuela, Iran, Syria, North Korea, Cuba, Malaysia and Lebanon - all of which are embroiled in civil war, political strife or human rights violations
2 View gallery
World Health Organization assembly at the United Nations Offices in Geneva
(Photo: AFP)
The session concluded with a vote of 78 to 14, with 32 abstentions, to adopt a resolution, co-sponsored by Syria, Cuba, Turkey, Qatar and the Palestinian delegation, requiring the WHO to hold the same debate at next year’s assembly, and to prepare another report on the “Health conditions in the occupied Palestinian territory, including east Jerusalem, and in the occupied Syrian Golan.”
Hillel Neuer, executive director of the Geneva-based NGO UN Watch decried the “cynical politicization of the world’s top health agency at the expense of focusing on the COVID-19 pandemic and other vital global health priorities and emergencies.”
Neuer maintained that not only are the claims that Israel is abusing Palestinian health rights false, but that opposite is true, adding that the attack seemed exceptionally galling, considering that the UN's "own Middle East peace envoy hailed Israel’s ‘excellent’ coordination and cooperation with Palestinians amid the coronavirus pandemic.”
Neuer was also dismissive of the claim that Israel routinely harms the health rights of Syrians fleeing to the Golan from President Bashar al-Assad's brutal regime, saying that Israel's now-defunct program, "Operation Good Neighbor", either secretly provided medical treatment for thousands of Syrians in Israeli hospitals or treated them at the border.
Published with permission from i24NEWS