APARTHEID ISRAEL?
Last week I was a patient in one of the two Hadassah hospitals in Jerusalem. I was placed in a room with two beds in the senior citizen’s cardiology department. The other bed was occupied by an Arab Christian woman from Bethlehem who was accompanied by her approximately 50 year old son. He slept next to her in a couch by her bed, and used the same facilities. There is a Palestinian hospital in Bethlehem but they preferred an Israeli hospital even though they had to pay privately. They were once part of a predominantly Christian Arab population. Today, Bethlehem is almost devoid of Christians, as the result of persecution by their Muslim brothers – and not only in Bethlehem. Israel’s public healthcare system is a model of genuine commonality between Arabs and Jews. I n the government healthcare system, Arabs fill 12.4% of jobs; in nursing studies 42% of students are Arab; pharmaceuticals has become identified with the Arab community – 38% of druggists are Arab; a...