Yossi Schwartz ISL (RCIT section in Israel/Occupied Palestine) 12.08.2026
While Jewish doctors and nurses are leaving Israel, Arab doctors and nurses are taking their place. In a country where the Zionist army kills and tortures Gazan doctors, one can expect an attack on Arab doctors and nurses. The response that can be expected from the Minister of Health and the hospital administration is the backing of the Arab doctors and nurses. But this is Israel. The Minister is a right winger, and the hospital is afraid of being perceived as pro-Arabs. On the Racism against Arab medical staff reported by Haaretz newspaper:
“This racist reaction got publicity already in 2016 when MK Bezalel Smotrich) enraged politicians on both sides of the aisle after justifying segregating Arab and Jewish mothers in hospitals. Since then, there have been similar incidents.
Arab employees of Rambam Hospital said on Sunday that they were disappointed that Rambam Hospital did not back them up in its official response to racist allegations made against them. The attack on the medical staff from the right began after the chairman of the racist Gevora Forum, Yehoshua Shani, claimed that his nephew, who was hospitalized in intensive care after being seriously injured in Lebanon, had not been treated properly by the Arab staff. After Shani’s post on social media, Defense Minister Yisrael Katz issued a statement instructing the army to look into the matter. “It looks like giving in to the evil racist winds in recent years in the country,” said an Arab medical expert from Rambam.
According to Shani, his nephew Eitan was sedated and put on a ventilator for three days and then woke up. On the night shift that followed, the families were asked to leave, as is customary in intensive care units. “According to the family, all the members of the nursing staff on the shift spoke Arabic,” Shani wrote. He claimed that the staff on the shift did not respond to his nephew’s request for water, and he even told his nephew that “when the staff members turned him over in bed, they brutally did so ‘like sardin,’ as Eitan put it, and his head was slammed into the bed.” Shani added that he wanted to understand why the army representative was not there.
After the publication on social media, Rambam Hospital issued a response that completely ignored the racist allegations and caused frustration among many of the hospital’s Arab employees. Later in the day, the hospital’s director, Dr. Michal Mekel, distributed an email to the employees in which he wrote: “It is important for me to tell you in the clearest way possible – I stand behind you and am proud of the professional, dedicated and humane work you do every day. Any attempt to create generalizations or divide staff members on the basis of language, origin or identity is unacceptable and does not reflect the spirit of Maimonides.”
But Arab employees at the hospital with whom Haaretz spoke expressed disappointment that the hospital management backed them up only with an internal email and not in response to the general public. “In the end, there is an attack on all the Arab medical teams here,” the medical source said. “We go above and beyond.” According to him, the intensive care unit is the most sensitive department in the hospital, so there are strict visit hours and great caution against infections. “If there is no sharp, clear and public backing even from the hospital, it is insulting and disappointing,” he added.
A senior Arab official in the health system in the north clarified that hospital placements are not made according to the language spoken by the employees. “On the eve of Rosh Hashanah, for example, we try to take as many Jews as possible out of consideration, so there are a lot of Arab workers on Shabbat and holidays,” he said. “The problem is in translating this scenario as if the enemy has taken over the platoon. The medical teams are fighting death and nothing else,” he stressed. “My question is not what the defense minister said and what his political considerations are, but how will Health Minister Haim Katz react to this unfortunate statement. The Minister of Health must issue a message that backs the entire health system, regardless of the religion, color, gender or nationality of each of its employees.”
A senior Arab doctor at HaEmek Hospital in Afula told Haaretz that for many years he has encountered racist phenomena, including by Arab families against Jewish staff. “In the atmosphere that exists in the country, there is a tailwind from above to let this fire spread like wildfire,” he added. “But what is unusual this time is the defense minister’s statement. I understand where it comes from – the atmosphere in the country spurs him to express himself like that. Not only toward Arabs, but toward anyone who disagrees with his position, including the head of the Central Command,” he said.
Jaafar Farah, founder of the Mossawa Center and a candidate on the Hadash list for the Knesset, also said in response to the attack on the Rambam staff, “Ministers Katz and Ben-Gvir are trying to make political capital on the backs of the Arab medical teams who work 24 hours a day to treat the seriously wounded, regardless of religion, race or gender.” According to him, “The Arab and Jewish medical teams are an example of the struggle for life, and the government ministers are the reason why there are not enough standards in the health system.”
There was not an organized Jewish Doctors response in defense of the Arab medical staff. At the end of “Haaretz” investigation Rambam Hospital told “Haaretz”: “We are fully backing our employees.”