A prominent Israeli charity says it has been abruptly shut out of Guinness World Records after the organization informed it that it is no longer accepting submissions from Israel or the Palestinian territories.

According to Channel 12, the nonprofit Matnat Chaim, which has helped transform Israel into a global leader in altruistic kidney donations, contacted Guinness to coordinate recognition for an unprecedented event it is planning in Jerusalem. The organization is preparing to gather 2,000 kidney donors — the largest assembly of its kind anywhere in the world — and hoped to secure a photograph of the gathering as an official world record.

But instead of the logistical guidance it expected, the charity was told that Guinness World Records is not processing any submissions from Israel, the Gaza Strip or the West Bank. No public explanation was provided, and the decision appears to apply universally to organizations and individuals alike.

Matnat Chaim’s president, Rachel Heber, called the move indefensible and an affront to a medical achievement that has earned Israel international praise. “Israel is leading the whole world in this wonderful revolution of mutual responsibility in altruistic kidney donations,” she told Channel 12. “The fact that Guinness refuses to include the Israeli achievement that astonished the entire medical world is unacceptable.”

The charity, founded to promote voluntary kidney donation, has been credited with dramatically increasing the number of life-saving transplants performed in Israel, often between total strangers. The upcoming event was meant not only as a celebration of that progress, but as a moment of recognition on the global stage.

Instead, the group is now confronting what appears to be a blanket exclusion from one of the world’s most recognizable record-keeping institutions. The refusal has raised immediate questions about whether Guinness is responding to political pressure or adopting a quiet policy aligned with broader international campaigns targeting Israel.

Guinness World Records has not publicly commented on the reported ban, nor clarified how long the restriction has been in effect or whether it intends to reverse course.

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)