How an unproven allegation against Arab Israeli medical staff became a political witch hunt
Underground complex at Rambam Hospital in October 2023
Jack Khoury reports in Haaretz on 19 August 2026:
After a right-wing attack on Arab medical staff, employees said they were disappointed that Haifa’s Rambam Hospital, the largest medical center in northern Israel, had not backed them in its official response to racist allegations made against them. Before the facts have even been established, the allegation has been turned into a tool of political vilification and a public witch hunt.
Yehoshua Shani, the chairman of the “Forum HaGvura” (Heroism Forum) – which represents bereaved families who oppose a Gaza cease-fire and call for the war to continue – claimed that his nephew, who had been hospitalized in intensive care at the hospital after being seriously wounded in Lebanon, had not received appropriate treatment from the Arab staff. After he posted his allegations on social media, Defense Minister Israel Katz issued a statement directing the IDF to investigate the matter.
One Arab medical worker described the turn of events as a “capitulation to the bad racist forces that have been growing in the country in recent years.”
Shani said his nephew Eitan was sedated and placed on a ventilator for three days before waking up. During the night shift that followed, families were asked to leave, as is customary in intensive care units.
“According to the family, all the nursing staff on the shift were Arabic speakers,” Shani wrote. He claimed that the staff on the shift did not respond to his nephew’s request for water, and that his nephew then told his brother that “when the staff turned him over in his bed, they did so brutally, ‘like a sardine,’ in Eitan’s words, and his head was slammed against the bed.” Shani added that he wanted to understand why there had been no IDF representative at the hospital.
The allegations must be investigated – there is no question about that. Every complaint about the conduct of a medical professional toward a patient requires a serious, professional and impartial investigation.
But there is an enormous distinction between the need for an impartial probe and the reality of a campaign of vilification and incitement that has developed around the allegations.
Defense Minister Israel Katz has already ordered an “urgent” investigation by the IDF, National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir joined the attack, and some media outlets presented the story as though it were fact rather than an allegation that has yet to be proven. This is not how an inquiry is conducted. This is a public witch hunt.
This is not the first time politicians have found Arab doctors to be a useful target for political campaigns. In the charged atmosphere after October 7, the phenomenon has become more pronounced: Arab doctors are subject to suspicion, generalizations and incitement simply for being Arab.
In July 2025, Likud MK Moshe Saada sparked controversy when he claimed that Arabs receive nearly half of the medical internships and licenses in Israel, and called for a policy of “if you didn’t serve, you don’t receive” medical subsidies, scholarships and positions.
In January, former Knesset Health Committee Chairman MK Limor Son Har-Melech of the far-right Otzma Yehudit party came out against the clinical training in Israel of Arab citizens who had studied medicine at Palestinian universities, saying she did not trust people who had studied at such institutions to treat Israeli citizens or soldiers.
The case of Dr. Ahmad Mahajna at Hadassah Hospital in Jerusalem also showed how quickly an allegation against an Arab doctor can turn into a public witch hunt. In 2022, he was suspended following allegations that he had given food to a “hospitalized terrorist.” The allegations were later disproven, his name was cleared, and he returned to work.
A wounded soldier, like any patient, is entitled to the best possible medical care, dignity and humane treatment. But Arab doctors and nurses are also entitled to dignity, protection and the presumption of innocence. One cannot protect one by trampling on the other.
After the allegations were posted on social media, Rambam Hospital issued a response that completely ignored the racist allegations, causing frustration among many of the hospital’s Arab employees. Later that day, the hospital’s director, Dr. Michal Makel, circulated an email to staff that said: “It is important to me to say this as clearly as possible – I stand behind you and am proud of the professional, dedicated and humane work you do every day. Any attempt to make generalizations or create divisions among staff members on the basis of language, background or identity is unacceptable and does not reflect the spirit of Rambam.”
But Arab employees at the hospital who spoke to Haaretz expressed disappointment that the hospital administration had backed them only in an internal email and not in a public response. “At the end of the day, this is an attack on all Arab medical staff,” the medical professional said. “We go above and beyond.” He said the intensive care unit is the most sensitive department in the hospital, which is why it has strict visiting hours and takes extensive precautions against infections. “If there isn’t clear, unequivocal and public backing even from the hospital itself, it is insulting and disappointing,” he added.
Another Arab healthcare official said that the issue lies in “portraying the situation as though the enemy has taken over the department.” “My question is not what the defense minister said or what his political considerations are, but how Health Minister Haim Katz will respond to this appalling statement. The health minister must issue a message backing the entire health care system, regardless of the religion, skin color, gender or nationality of any of its employees,” he said.
A senior Arab doctor at HaEmek Hospital in the northern Israeli city of Afula told Haaretz that for many years he had encountered racist incidents, including cases involving Arab families behaving toward Jewish staff.
He says there is backing from political leadership to let the phenomenon “spread like wildfire.” He said what makes the situation unusual is Katz’s call for the IDF to investigate the matter.
Jafar Farah, who is a candidate on the left-wing Arab Israeli Hadash party, said that the government ministers are the “reason there is a shortage of personnel in the health care system.”
Rambam is more than a hospital. It is one of the most important public spaces in Israel where Jewish and Arab staff work together every day and treat every person who comes through its doors. There is no place there for loyalty tests. An Arab doctor should not have to prove that he is loyal to the state, and an Arab nurse should not have to prove that she is “on the right side.” They are committed to their profession, to medical ethics and to the patient before them.
That is precisely what public health care is all about. Anyone who takes an unproven allegation and turns it into an indictment of Arab medical staff is not protecting the soldiers. They are harming the system that is supposed to care for them. Politicians and the media need to understand this.
While Rambam Hospital said that it fully backs its employees, the institution’s management cannot settle for a cautious and polite response. It is good that it takes every allegation seriously and has taken the initiative to investigate the incident. But at the same time, it must make clear that there is no place for disqualifying medical staff based on nationality. The investigation must be thorough, and at the same time, the staff must be defended firmly.
This is the moment for the Health Ministry, the Israel Medical Association and hospital administrations to speak clearly. Not to defend anyone who is found guilty, but to defend the basic principle that a professional inquiry is not a campaign of persecution, and that a complaint is not a license for incitement.
Arab doctors and nurses are not guests in the Israeli health care system. They have been an integral part of it, professionally and humanly, for decades. Politicians, primary races and elections must not be allowed to turn intensive care units, too, into an arena for accumulating political capital. If we live in a country that is ill with racism, perhaps we should preserve one space that remains healthy – the health care system.
Adi Hashmonai contributed to this report.
This article is reproduced in its entirety