B’nai B’rith International has issued the following statement:

This week the World Health Organization is holding its annual assembly in Geneva. Mixed in among the pressing global health issues to be discussed are health conditions within the “occupied” Palestinian territories, as well as the “occupied Syrian” Golan. This agenda item is directly focused on Israel, the only such item which is country specific. This is just another example of the Palestinians and Syria’s Assad regime using an international forum to demonize Israel.

B’nai B’rith is discouraged that the World Health Organization would allow the Palestinians and those aligned with them to politicize the assembly instead of putting all of its efforts into important agenda items like influenza control or non-communicable diseases.

The assembly has already passed a resolution for the second consecutive year criticizing Israel for its health care-related dealings with the Palestinians.

The Palestinian Authority is clearly emboldened by its upgrade in status to non-member “state” at the United Nations General Assembly, and because of this, the PA is continually shirking direct negotiations with Israel. The only way to peace between Israel and the Palestinians is to return to the negotiating table, not engage in continued smear campaigns at the United Nations.