Guinness World Records has notified an Israeli nonprofit that it is refusing to review any new submissions from both Israel and the Palestinian territories, according to a Channel 12 report.
The revelation came after Matnat Chaim, an organization renowned for facilitating altruistic kidney donations, reached out to Guinness about a massive event it is preparing in Jerusalem. The group is working on assembling 2,000 kidney donors in a single location — a spectacle it hoped would earn recognition in the next edition of the record book.
What the organization expected to be a routine inquiry instead turned into a disappointment. As Channel 12 reported, officials at Guinness explained that they are currently declining entries from Israel as well as from Gaza and the West Bank, meaning the charity’s planned photo of the historic gathering would not even be considered.
Rachel Heber, who heads Matnat Chaim, expressed deep frustration over the decision. She told Channel 12, “Israel is leading the whole world in this wonderful revolution of mutual responsibility in altruistic kidney donations. The fact that Guinness refuses to include the Israeli achievement that astonished the entire medical world is unacceptable.”
