Guinness World Records is no longer accepting submissions from Israel or the Palestinian territories, a Jerusalem-based NGO that helps people make voluntary kidney donations said on Wednesday.
The NGO “Matnat Chaim,” whose name means “Gift of Life” in Hebrew, said it had contacted Guinness World Records regarding an event it is planning next month, which will bring together 2,000 Israeli kidney donors in the hope of having the gathering entered into the next Guinness Book of World Records.
However, the British body informed the Israeli group two months ago that it was no longer accepting submissions from Israel or the Palestinian territories, the Israeli nonprofit said.
The charity made a second appeal after the ceasefire with Hamas went into effect in October, but has not received a response, a spokesman said on Wednesday.
Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar on Wednesday condemned the new policy, calling it “inexcusable.” Israelis, he added, “expect and demand that this twisted decision be revoked immediately.”
Israel is “leading the whole world in this wonderful revolution of mutual responsibility in altruistic kidney donations,” Matnat Chaim President Rachel Heber told JNS. “The fact that Guinness refuses to include the Israeli achievement that astonished the entire medical world is unacceptable.”
“We don’t even have to say that this is a political decision,” Judy Singer, vice president of the organization, told JNS on Wednesday. “It’s black and white in their statement.”
Singer, a kidney donor herself, said that the organization would still submit the information to Guinness next month in the hopes it will change its mind.
The Israeli nonprofit also pledged to carry on its volunteer work.
“We are proud and happy to have reached the unbelievable number of 2,000 life-saving donors in Israel of people who did not know each other,” Heber’s statement continued. “We will continue with God’s help to bring more and more kidney donors to save as many lives as possible in Israel and we will continue to be a light unto the Nations.”
Guinness World Records had not responded to a request for comment at time of publication.
