“Appeal to World Health Organisation Director-General: 'Alert French Delegation to violation of WHO Constitution Articles 67 and 68 and a crude politicization of medicine'.”

Paris, 1 October 2015

In a letter to Paris Mayor, Anne Hidalgo, Simon Wiesenthal Centre Director for International Relations, Dr. Shimon Samuels, expressed shock at “the reported distribution to primary schools – by the Paris Municipality – of a diary produced by the French League Against Cancer, that wipes Israel off the map replacing it with 'Palestine'.”

Samuels noted that “the Centre is calling on its members and friends to withdraw support from the French League Against Cancer and its patrons, as also for Israeli cutting-edge cancer research projects to consider appropriate measures regarding further cooperation.”

The Centre urged the Mayor to “take steps to recall these scurrilous 'diaries', identify and dismiss the antisemite responsible for this geographical revisionism and publicly condemn this travesty.”

Samuels, likewise, wrote to Dr. Margaret Chan, Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO), arguing that “this deletion of the State of Israel – a member of the United Nations and the WHO – by a French medical organization, arguably, impugns Articles 67 and 68 of the WHO Constitution on 'the privileges and immunities of Member States and a crude politicization of medicine'.”

“We urge you to alert the French delegation to the WHO to the serious nature of this violation, concluded Samuels.

The letters were also shared with the Israel Cancer Association.