Recently the World Health Organization (WHO), a UN agency, has received much criticism because of its handling of the coronavirus pandemic during its early stages. Further undermining its own credibility, at its annual meeting last week it passed a resolution—cosponsored by Cuba, Syria, Yemen, and other tyrannies and failed states—gratuitously condemning Israel. Elliott Abrams comments:
Here we are in the middle of a global pandemic, but the WHO’s annual meeting can still abandon its responsibilities and divert [its attention to] an assault on Israel. . . . The resolution requires yet another time-wasting debate at next year’s annual meeting as well.
This contemptible resolution was supported by France, Spain, Switzerland, Belgium, Portugal, Japan, India, Ireland, New Zealand, Luxembourg, and 72 other countries . . . . The vote was 82 in favor, fourteen opposed, and a very large bloc abstaining (40) or absent (38). That means that 82 countries were in favor and 92 were not. The vote that those European democracies plus New Zealand and Japan cast is a foul politicization of the WHO—at a moment when its handling of the COVID-19 pandemic and of China is very much in question.
The United Nations is supposedly going to lead the effort to assist Gazans while preventing any of that aid from assisting Hamas. One wonders if those who voted for this resolution ever stop to wonder how such actions affect Israelis’ confidence in the UN system’s ability to do its work reliably, honestly, and courageously in the teeth of a terrorist group that will seek to intimidate it. Or perhaps one doesn’t need to wonder very much.
Read more on Pressure Points: https://www.cfr.org/blog/amidst-global-pandemic-another-shameful-who-vote-israel?