Israel ‘Apartheid’? Try Visiting the Hospital
Opinion Section: Wall Street Journal
Israel ‘Apartheid’? Try Visiting the Hospital
‘I was comforted by the father of a wounded Israeli soldier in the next room, as well as by the brother of an ailing Arab man in the next bed.’
ET
The entrance to the Rambam Hospital emergency room in Haifa, Israel, Feb. 24, 2021. PHOTO: GETTY IMAGES
Arabs and Jews worked and were treated side by side at Jerusalem’s Shaare Zedek Medical Center when Michael Segal was there a year ago (“You Can’t Fight in Here. This Is the Operating Room!” op-ed, July 23). But readers might wonder: Is it the same today, months after Oct. 7?
This month, I flew to Israel to be at the bedside of my son on the hospital’s 10th floor. My Orthodox Jewish son’s hospital roommates and their families were Arab, as were a number of his doctors and nurses. I was comforted by the father of a wounded Israeli soldier in the next room, as well as by the brother of an ailing Arab man in the next bed. The hospital’s waiting rooms, lounges, elevators, shops, kosher eateries and taxi stands were crowded with a mix of people speaking Arabic and Hebrew. The only thing missing was apartheid.
Judith Pransky, Cincinnati
Dr. Segal’s op-ed echoes my experience this past January as a volunteer anesthesiologist at Rambam Medical Center in Haifa. This 1,000-bed hospital is the academic center for the country’s north and has a medical staff that is 40% Arab and a matching patient population. Perhaps most illustrative was my first case. A 74-year-old Arabic-speaking woman with a heart condition was admitted for belly surgery. We communicated via her grandson, who translated from Arabic to Hebrew, and the surgical resident, who translated from Hebrew to English.
My anesthesia resident was Russian. The surgeons were Jewish and Arab. The OR circulating nurse was Arab. The scrub nurse was Jewish. The patient voiced her confidence in the team, was at ease, and had a successful outcome.
Eric Skolnick, M.D.
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