The myth of Israel’s Arab doctors
Medical staff at the underground level of Rambam Hospital in Haifa, 2 September 2024
Baker Zoubi writes in +972 on 31 August 2026:
In recent weeks, Arab staff members in the intensive care unit at Rambam Hospital, in the northern Israeli city of Haifa, have found themselves at the center of a public attack. Relatives of Israeli soldiers wounded in Lebanon who were being treated at the hospital accused “Arabic-speaking” staff of malpractice, claiming the staff had deprived their loved ones of water and treated them roughly. Israel’s most-watched television station, Channel 12, amplified the allegations, and an uproar quickly followed.
Rambam’s administration investigated the complaint and found it to be without basis. But the facts mattered little to the Israeli right, which used the incident to ramp up a campaign against the prominent presence of Arab medical professionals in Israel’s healthcare system.
Osnat Mark, a former Likud lawmaker, said in an interview on the pro-Netanyahu Channel 14 that Israel needed to “Judaize” the medical profession. “You walk into hospitals and feel like you’re in Ramallah,” she exclaimed.
Likud MK Moshe Saada has likewise been campaigning against what he describes as “affirmative action” for Arab doctors, claiming that if his daughter wanted to study medicine, “Fatma from Umm Al-Fahm” (an Arab city near Haifa) would be preferred over her. Following the reports about Rambam, such rhetoric has only intensified.
There has also been a significant backlash against the incitement. In the aftermath of the incident, left-wing Jewish and Palestinian activists distributed flowers to Rambam staff members, while over 32,000 people signed a campaign in support of them. Medical unions and professional organizations condemned the attacks.