As at least three Arab states plan seek to oust Israel from the International Telecommunications Union, a crisis is brewing over the Palestine Liberation Organization’s demand for membership in the World Heath Organization.
PLO chief Yasir Arafat, meeting here last week with Dr. Hiroshi Nakajima, director of the WHO, said the PLO will demand that its request for membership be placed on the agenda of the World Health Assembly, the WHO’s governing body, when it convenes here May 8.
The PLO is seeking acceptance as a member state with full rights to participate in all WHO activities.
But if this is voted, as is possible considering the political makeup of the assembly, the WHO stands to lose the $150 million the United States contributes to the U.N. health agency.
More than 50 U.S. senators have signed a letter to Secretary of State James Baker saying they would favor cutting off funds to the WHO or any other U.N. agencies that admit the PLO.
Nakajima is flying to Washington Monday to appeal for continued funding, even if the PLO is admitted.
At a news conference in Geneva over the weekend, he said Arafat warned him that if the PLO was not admitted to the WHO, it would seek to have Israel suspended from the ITU.
Meanwhile, the ITU’s secretary-general, Richard Butler, confirmed to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency on Friday that Syria, Saudi Arabia and Qatar submitted a written proposal last November to exclude Israel from the organization.
It will be taken up in late May at the agency’s general assembly in Nice, France.
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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.
