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Three times during the past year, several Arab countries and the Palestinian Authority had frustrated Hadassah's efforts to attain such status, attacking the 89-year-old humanitarian organization as inherently political due to the "Zionist" in its name.

The Palestinian representative and others delayed a vote by demanding that Hadassah answer questions such as whether its hospital in Hadassah Hebrew University Medical Center in Jerusalem was in fact a "settlement."

But in recent months, a number of high-profile political figures — including the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Richard Holbrooke and Sen. Jesse Helms (R-N.C.), chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee — had joined Jewish groups to pressure ECOSOC to embrace Hadassah.

The committee approved Hadassah's application 9-5.

The United States, Turkey, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Ethiopia, France, Germany and Romania approved Hadassah's application. Sudan, Algeria, Cuba, Lebanon and Pakistan voted against, while three members abstained.