- Dr. Mitchell J. Schwaber resigned Monday from his position as a volunteer advisor for the World Health Organization (WHO) after it condemned Israel for ordering people to evacuate from Gaza ahead of a military siege against Hamas, a Palestinian terrorist organization, according to a letter obtained by the Daily Caller News Foundation.
- WHO said it condemned Hamas’ “horrific acts of violence,” but also lamented the “bombing by Israel” in the “occupied Palestinian territory” in an Oct. 10 statement.
- “[W]ith all due respect, I must ask: what world do you inhabit? I ask this because it seems to me that it is far different from the world in which I live,” Schwaber wrote.
Dr. Mitchell J. Schwaber, a former Israeli advisor to the World Health Organization (WHO), resigned Monday after the WHO “strongly” condemned Israel for ordering people to evacuate from Gaza following Hamas’ terror attacks, according to a letter obtained by the Daily Caller News Foundation.
WHO issued a statement on Oct. 14, demanding that Israel “immediately reverse evacuation orders” for Palestinian hospitals after the Jewish state warned that it would be launching a ground assault in Gaza after Hamas murdered over 1,300 Israelis and took nearly 200 more captive. Schwaber, a professor of medicine at Tel Aviv University, said he would no longer continue serving as a volunteer advisor after WHO called for an “end to the hostilities” and failed to acknowledge the terror attacks that led to Israel’s evacuation order of Gaza hospitals in the statement, according to a letter addressed to Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO director-general. (RELATED: US Universities Silent On Continued Partnership With Country That Funds Hamas)
“Dr. Ghebreyesus, with all due respect, I must ask: what world do you inhabit? I ask this because it seems to me that it is far different from the world in which I live,” Schwaber wrote. “The world in which Israelis have lived since the early morning hours of 7 October is one in which a band of terrorists, committed in word and deed to the annihilation of every Jew, breached our sovereign border, brutally and gleefully massacred over 1300 people, ranging in age from under 1 to over 80, maimed well over 3000 more, and, unconscionably, kidnapped at least 199 people, including toddlers and the injured and the frail elderly, with no word on their whereabouts or fate since.”
While WHO condemned Hamas’ “horrific acts of violence,” it also lamented the “bombing by Israel” and referred to Gaza as the “occupied Palestinian territory” in an Oct. 10 statement. Schwaber criticized WHO’s calls for Hamas to release Israeli “civilian hostages,” which he argued implied “that in WHO’s eyes abducting Israeli soldiers is in some way acceptable,” according to the letter.
Schwaber said that he had served in a volunteer advisory position for WHO since 2017 “out of a sense of duty to world health” and “a feeling of pride,” but that WHO’s comments on the situation in Israel would “no longer” allow for that, according to the letter. He told the DCNF that he would only consider returning if WHO “begins to show a moral compass, indicating that it differentiates between good and evil.”
A WHO spokesperson pointed the DCNF to Ghebreyesus’ remarks regarding the conflict at the opening ceremony of the World Health Summit on Oct. 15 in Berlin, Germany. Ghebreyesus called Hamas’ attacks on Israel “unjustified and horrific,” but noted that he is “gravely concerned about Israeli attacks on Palestinian civilians” and argued that Israel’s evacuation order would “create a humanitarian tragedy.”
“The forced evacuation of patients and health workers will further worsen the humanitarian and public health catastrophe,” Ghebreyesus said. “WHO calls on Hamas to release civilian hostages, and we continue to appeal to Israel to abide by its obligations under international law to protect civilians and health facilities.”
Schwaber argued that Israel was not “attacking Palestinian citizens,” as Ghebreyesus suggested, but was fighting a “brutal enemy that uses civilians as human shields,” according to the letter.
Hamas has been known to use hospitals, schools and religious sites as cover for its military operations as a deterrent for attacks from Israel’s military, according to The Washington Post.
Schwaber told the DCNF that he had received no response from WHO or Ghebreyesus, and the WHO spokesperson did not answer questions regarding whether or not the director-general would respond to the letter.
“I am hopeful that WHO will come around,” Schwaber told the DCNF. “However, based on WHO’s statement on Oct. 17 condemning ‘the attack’ on Al Ahli Arab Hospital in Gaza, implicitly placing blame on Israel, despite US and Israeli intelligence reports indicating that the hospital was not attacked but rather experienced an explosion from an errant missile fired at Israel from Gaza by Islamic Jihad, WHO still has a long road to travel if it is going to get this right.”
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