The executive board of the World Health Organization, United Nations specialized agency, decided today to refer to the forthcoming WHO assembly in Mexico City, the problem raised by the exclusion of Israel from the activities of the organization in the Eastern Mediterranean.
The action followed an appeal from Israel, which noted that a “compromise” solution worked out at last year’s assembly, had proved inoperative and had not raised the isolation forced by the intransigence of the Arab states. Last year, in an attempt to get around the Arab refusal to permit Israel delegates to attend conferences called on the soil of any of the Arab states, the assembly set up two Eastern Mediterranean committees with the same membership, except that Israel was on one and the Arabs were on the other.
The committee on which the Arab states were represented met in Alexandria. Since the non-Arab representatives were at that session the business of the area was carried on there and no meeting of the second committee was ever called, depriving Israel of the benefits of the regional organization, Outlining this situation, Israel called upon WHO to reach a solution in consonance with UN Charter principles and the needs of all parties.
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
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.
