An Israeli official has accused the Geneva-based World Health Organization of distorting reports about the health conditions of Palestinians in the administered territories.
Dr. Yitzhak Sever, the public health coordinator of Israel’s Health Ministry, told a news conference here last Friday that it was absolutely untrue that health conditions in the territories have deteriorated either as a result of the intifada or the Persian Gulf War.
Israel has in fact continued to implement planned projects in face of those events, including the expansion of hospital services in the territories and the construction of a new psychiatric hospital, Sever said.
He specifically denied a report by the WHO’s director general, Dr. Hiroshi Nakajima.
Israel is attending the annual General Assembly of the WHO, which opened here May 6.
Asked why Israel has refused to allow health experts to visit the territories since 1986, the Health Ministry official said the reports by those experts, once they returned to Geneva from Israel or the territories, were distorted versions of what they had told Israeli authorities before they left.
Sever said that in the three years since the Palestinian uprising began and during the Gulf war, health services continued to function without interruption, as did hospitals, clinics and training programs for medical personnel.
He said the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian refugees continued to provide services in 19 refugee camps and that cooperation between Israel and UNRWA continued throughout the Gulf crisis.
Israel’s annual budget for medical services in the territories is about $27 million, Sever said.
Earlier, the head of the Israeli delegation, Health Minister Ehud Olmert, made clear that health services in the territories are up to the standards prescribed by the WHO and are under the constant supervision of his ministry.
The annual report provided by the Israeli delegation showed marked improvements in health services over past years.
Meanwhile, the Palestine Liberation Organization’s latest bid for admission to the WHO was ignored at the Geneva meeting.
Unlike in previous years, the PLO’s request to have its representative appointed to the WHO did not even make the agenda of the admissions committee, the Israeli daily Ha’aretz reported.
(JTA correspondent Hugh Orgel in Tel Aviv contributed to this report.)
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
