Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu attends the weekly cabinet meeting in Jerusalem, March 10, 2019. Photo: Gali Tibbon/Pool via REUTERS/File Photo.

JNS.org – The United Nation’s World Health Organization passed a resolution accusing Israel of perpetuating a health crisis in the Palestinian territories.

The tally was 96 in favor, 11 against and 21 abstaining.

Voting against the measure were the United States, United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, Brazil, Germany, Czech Republic, Guatemala, Honduras, Hungary, and Israel. Several of these delegations “took the floor to strongly object to the politicization of the forum,” the UN Watch monitoring group said.

The measure was co-sponsored by the UN’s Arab bloc and Palestinian delegation, and condemned Israel over “Health conditions in the occupied Palestinian territory, including east Jerusalem, and in the occupied Syrian Golan.”

It was the only one of the 21 items on the meeting’s agenda that focused on a specific country.

“There was no agenda item or resolution on any other country, including Syria, where hospitals and medical infrastructure have suffered devastating bombings by Syrian and Russian forces; Yemen, where 19.7 million people lack access to health care service due to the current crisis; or Venezuela, where the health system has collapsed, causing millions to flee the country,” said UN Watch President Hillel Neuer.

“The UN reached new heights of absurdity by enacting a resolution which accuses Israel of violating the health rights of Syrians in the Golan, even as in reality Israeli hospitals provide life-saving treatment to Syrians fleeing to the Golan from the Assad regime’s barbaric attacks,” Neuer added.

In a separate statement, World Jewish Congress President Ronald S. Lauder called out the UN body for again demonstrating “the pervasive double standards within the United Nations which single out Israel for condemnation while absolving the Palestinian authorities of any wrongdoing or responsibility in the territories under their control.”

“As in the UN General Assembly, the Human Rights Council, the Commission on the Status of Women and other bodies, the World Health Organization has debated only one country-specific resolution at this session, despite scores of conflicted regions where the deterioration of health continues to pose an alarming and pressing threat.”

“This resolution, which in its very essence is deeply flawed, does not once mention Hamas or its responsibility for the health crisis in the Gaza Strip and barely mentions the role that the Palestinian Authority plays in caring for its residents, placing the blame disproportionately on Israel,” continued Lauder. “It also turns a blind eye to the corruption that abounds within the Palestinian leadership, and the misuse of funds that could and should be devoted to health care and are instead used to reward terrorists for murdering and maiming Israelis.”