Ala condemns Israeli occupation’s refusal to allow WHO to inspect health conditions in occupied Syrian Golan

GENEVA, (ST)- The Executive Board of World Health Organization (WHO) on Friday rejected a draft decision proposed by Israel to cancel the item pertaining to “the Health situation in the occupied Palestinian territories, including East Quds and the occupied Syrian Golan” from the agenda of the World Health Assembly’s next session.

 

15 countries rejected the draft while only 7 states supported it.

In a speech at the 147th session of  the WHO Executive Board, Syria’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations  in Geneva Hussam al-Din Ala condemned the Israeli occupation’s continuous refusal to allow the WHO to assume its mandate represented in inspecting the health condition of Syrian citizens in the occupied Syrian Golan.

 

He urged WHO to send a mission to assess the situation in occupied Golan and  to be informed about the obstacles that hinder the access of Syrian citizens under occupation to necessary health care.

 

Assessment should include the obstacles that result from the occupation’s restrictions on citizens’ movement and on the development of a sustainable health system. It should also observe health and environmental damage of the Israeli occupation’s decision to build wind turbines to generate electricity in the farmlands of the people in occupied Golan, Ala said.

 

He reiterated that Israel’s continuous  attempts to cancel the item on “the Health situation in the occupied Palestinian territories, including East Quds and the occupied Syrian Golan” from the agenda of the WHO aims at legalizing the Israeli occupation which keeps violating UN resolutions and the decisions of the World Health Assembly. He pointed out that these attempts also aim at evading commitment to the obligations of the international humanitarian law and at covering the occupation’s violations of the basic rights of the people in occupied Palestine and the Syrian Golan.

 

Hamda Mustafa