The World Health Organization adopts a resolution in favor of the occupied Syrian Golan and the occupied Palestinian territories

Geneva-Sana (ST): The World Health Organization stressed the importance of ensuring the availability of mental, physical and environmental health services and the access to COVID-19 vaccines in an equitable, safe and non-discriminatory manner to the people of the occupied Syrian Golan and to the Palestinians in the occupied territories in accordance with the provisions of international law. 

This came during the Organization’s adoption at its seventy-fifth session today of a resolution in favor of the occupied Syrian Golan and the occupied Palestinian territories, entitled “Health Conditions in the Occupied Syrian Golan and the Occupied Palestinian Territories,” by a majority of 77 member states against 14 opposition.

The Organization drew attention to the need to continue strengthening partnerships with other United Nations agencies to support the humanitarian health response capabilities in the occupied Syrian Golan and the occupied Palestinian territories, including Jerusalem, by providing assistance and protection in a comprehensive and sustainable manner during the Corona pandemic and after the end of the epidemiological crisis, in addition to meeting the health needs of prisoners in occupation prisons, supporting the Palestinian health sector and providing technical assistance in the health field to the Syrians in the occupied Golan.

Syria’s permanent representative to the United Nations and international organizations in Geneva, Ambassador Husam El-Din Ala, pointed out in a speech before voting on the draft resolution that the systematic aggressive practices and settlement activities imposed by the Israeli occupation authorities in the occupied Syrian Golan harm the living conditions of its Syrian children and violate their basic human rights, including the right to health.

Ambassador Ala welcomed the Organization’s intention to conduct a field assessment of the health conditions of Syrian citizens in the occupied Golan, stressing the importance of conducting the said assessment without preconditions, taking into account the legal obligations imposed on the occupying entity under the Fourth Geneva Convention of 1949 and relevant Security Council resolutions, which confirmed that the imposition of the Israeli occupation of its jurisdiction over the occupied Syrian Golan is null and void and has no international legal effect.

K.Q.