by Amir Mizroch
At an official U.N. health conference, Syria accuses Israel of burying nuclear waste on Golan Heights, placing "nuclear land mines" on cease-fire line and conducting medical experiments on Syrian prisoners • Israel: Absurd how U.N. being cynically abused.
In an act of macabre political theater, Syria
presented a report to the U.N.'s World Health Organization on Monday
slamming what it says is the "deterioration of the health conditions of
the Syrian population in the occupied Golan as a result of the
suppressive practices of the Israeli occupation."
Under the rubric of "Health Conditions in the
Occupied Palestinian Territory, Including East Jerusalem, and in the
Occupied Syrian Golan," the conference featured four reports
scrutinizing Israel, and a brief reply from the Jewish state. According
to U.N. Watch, nowhere in the WHO agenda or supporting documents is
there any mention of the more than 80,000 civilians slaughtered in
Syria, the tens of thousands more who have been injured or disfigured,
the 2.5 million refugees, including 600,000 children, strewn across the
region, or the 2 million children internally displaced.
In a report to the WHO's 66th World Health
Assembly, Syria's Health Ministry said that Syrians were being deprived
of medical treatment for rejecting Israeli citizenship, and there was an
"acute shortage of primary and tertiary health care services owing to
the lack of integrated medical centres in the occupied Syrian Golan."
The Syrian report accuses Israel of torturing
Syrians held in Israeli prisons, saying they "continue to be held in
inhumane conditions of detention."
It also accuses Israel of using Arab and
Syrian detainees for "testing medicines," after which they are "brutally
tortured and coerced into confessing crimes they never committed.
Prisoners are also injected with dangerous viruses that cause them to
develop diseases and disabilities, even with a fatal outcome."
The report also accuses Israel of burying
nuclear waste in the Golan and "planting the cease-fire line with
nuclear and radioactive land mines."
"Israeli occupation authorities are continuing
to bury nuclear waste in more than 20 sites, as well as more than 1,500
barrels of radioactive and toxic materials dumped in secret landfills
in the occupied Syrian Golan territories," the report said. It asked the
WHO "to end inhuman Israeli practices that target the health of Syrian
citizens."
The report, and Syria's presentation of it at
an official U.N. assembly, has been described as "absurd" by the Israeli
representative to the WHO.
In a statement, Israel's Permanent Mission to
the U.N. and other international organizations in Geneva said: "The
position of the State of Israel has always been that a politically
motivated debate and resolution on the item 'Health Conditions in the
Occupied Palestinian Territory, Including East Jerusalem, and in the
Occupied Syrian Golan' has no place on the agenda of the World Health
Assembly. The Health Assembly should not discuss the health situation of
a population in a specific conflict, as it is not of a general public
health nature.
"The Health Assembly is not the forum to
discuss the narrative of an ongoing conflict, nor the place to decide on
political matters. The constantly improving health situation in the
Palestinian territory as reflected by a number of indicators and the
fact that all residents of the Golan Heights enjoy high-quality medical
services equal to all other residents of Israel, only emphasize that it
is better for the World Health Assembly to turn its attention and
limited financial resources toward regions in which its involvement is
really required and highly expected.
"The above is even more valid given the
ongoing deteriorating situation in Syria, especially with regard to the
health situation of the people of Syria and the incomprehensible
destruction caused to the public health facilities of the country. The
State of Israel regards the continuous World Health Assembly's debate on
the health conditions in the 'occupied Syrian Golan,' as an absurd
example of the way the assembly's agenda is cynically abused [and the]
World Health Organization's limited resources squandered, and will not
cooperate with it."
Amir Mizroch
Source: http://www.israelhayom.com/site/newsletter_article.php?id=9453
Copyright - Original materials copyright (c) by the authors.
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