Hadassah Raps Who’s Anti-israel Action, Notes Medical Services for Arabs in Territories

The Hadassah Medical Organization’s national board announced its plans to review its membership in the United States Association for World Health, the affiliate of the World Health Organization, at United Nations agency which voted last week a condemnation of Israel’s treatment of residents of the administered territories.

In a letter last week to Dr. S. A. Malafatopolous, head of WHO, Mrs. Rose E. Matzkin, Hadassah president, said the WHO Assembly resolution was “an action which lowers the moral value of the WHO and casts doubt on the validity of its work.”

She said that after the 1967 war, hundreds of Arabs came to Hadassah for medical treatment “after years of neglect by the Arab government” of the West Bank and East Jerusalem. She said “the health standards in those areas are higher today than ever; the mortality rate is lower. This attempt, once again to politicize a UN agency only denigrates the value of the agency to all the peoples of the world and renders it liable to suspicion of its motives. As a member of the U.S. Committee for WHO, Hadassah will have to review its position.”

CITES MEDICAL SERVICE FOR ARABS

Mrs. Matzkin cited the medical services provided by the Hadassah-Hebrew University Medical Center in Jerusalem to Arab residents of Gaza, the West Bank “and even Jordan,” in addition to providing primary health care services in hospitals and clinics.

As U.S. administrator for the Food for Peace program, she added, Hadassah distributes food supplements to Arab institutions to raise the nutritional level for children, pregnant women, and the sick and aged “and all of this has paid off in the amazing improvement of the health and welfare of the Arab population in the administered territories.”

She cited the fact that the WHO assembly had condemned Israel despite the report of the WHO investigator approving of Israel’s health services in these areas.”