From +972 Magazine
Celebrated as proof of Israeli liberalism and vilified by the right, Palestinian physicians are in fact being quietly shut out of the profession.
In recent weeks, Arab staff members in the intensive care unit at Rambam Hospital, in the northern Israeli city of Haifa, have found themselves at the center of a public attack. Relatives of Israeli soldiers wounded in Lebanon who were being treated at the hospital accused “Arabic-speaking” staff of malpractice, claiming the staff had deprived their loved ones of water and treated them roughly. Israel’s most-watched television station, Channel 12, amplified the allegations, and an uproar quickly followed.
Rambam’s administration investigated the complaint and found it to be without basis. But the facts mattered little to the Israeli right, which used the incident to ramp up a campaign against the prominent presence of Arab medical professionals in Israel’s healthcare system.
Osnat Mark, a former Likud lawmaker, said in an interview on the pro-Netanyahu Channel 14 that Israel needed to “Judaize” the medical profession. “You walk into hospitals and feel like you’re in Ramallah,” she exclaimed.
Baker Zoubi is a journalist and Palestinian citizen of Israel, based in the village of Kufr Maser in the Lower Galilee. He began his career in 2010 as a reporter for local Arab media outlets, before advancing to the position of senior editor at the Nazareth-based news platform Bokra. Since 2021, he has been a contributing writer at Local Call and +972 Magazine, while continuing his work as a part-time news editor at Bokra and publishing op-eds on political and social issues in Palestinian society.
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