Despite the Israeli-Arab conflict, a Palestinian newspaper has recognized how Israel’s Hadassah Medical Center has helped the Palestinian people.
According to Palestinian Media Watch, the Palestinian daily Al Hayat Al Jadida reported, “PA Minister of Health, Hani Abdeen visited the Israeli Hadassah Hospital. This is the first visit by a Palestinian minister to one of the most important Israeli hospitals, according to the hospital’s announcement. Minister Abdeen who was accompanied by a delegation that included senior officials of the ministry and of the PA, met with the Director of Ein Karem Hadassah Hospital, Yuval Weiss. He [the minister] visited Palestinian patients being treated in the hospital, and he distributed gifts.”
Al Hayat Al Jadida continued, “Hospital director Weiss said: ‘We relate to patients without regard to nationality and religion. We treat Muslims, Christians, Jews, and other nationalities without bias, and 30% of the patients who are children are Palestinians.‘ He went on to say: ‘We’ve begun cooperating with the Palestinians. We now train teams of physicians from the hospital in Beit Jala in the southern West Bank, to treat cancer among children. We have about 60 Palestinian medical interns and specialist physicians who will be returning to the Palestinian Authority areas to carry out their work.”
ISRAELI MEDICAL ESTABLISHMENT HELPS PALESTINIANS
Hadassah Hospital has done much to help the Palestinian people and Arabs in general. A Muslim Israeli Arab is presently in charge of emergency medicine at Hadassah Hospital. The liver unit at Hadassah Hospital is also headed by an Israeli Arab, who managed to uncover the gene linked to liver disease. Hadassah Hospital has been a place where Arab doctors have been able to thrive professionally and work towards saving lives, both of Israelis and of Palestinians.
Aside from offering many Arabs jobs, Israel’s medical establishment has always worked to save Palestinian lives with the same vigor that they save Israeli lives. In fact, a 2012 report from the World Health Organization found that Israel approved 91.5 percent of all Palestinian applications to receive medical care within the State of Israel. Save a Child’s Heart, an Israeli organization, has also saved the lives of 3,000 children, of who half were hailing from the Palestinian Authority. Additionally, an Israeli hospital has reportedly been taking care of a disabled Gazan baby after he was abandoned both by his parents and the Palestinian Authority, who stopped funding his medical treatment.
IT IS RARE FOR A PA NEWSPAPER TO PRAISE ISRAEL
The fact that the official PA daily Al Hayat Al Jadida has recognized these facts is very refreshing, especially given the routine incitement that occurs against Israel and the Jewish people in this publication, as well as other Palestinian newspapers. For example, in the past, the Al Hayat Al Jadida publication has denied the fact that the Western Wall belongs to the Jewish people, accused Israel of murdering and poisoning Palestinian prisoners, and according to Palestinian Media Watch declared that Israel withholds “elementary human rights from Palestinian children.” Indeed, this one article was a rare example where the Al Hayat Al Jadida publication showed Israel in a positive light, as a country that helps rather than hurts Palestinians.
By Rachel Avraham, staff writer for United With Israel