“The law comes before patients’ preferences,” Knesset Committee for the Advancement of the Status of Women chairperson MK Aida Touma-Sliman (Hadash – Joint List) said in a meeting about segregated maternity wards in hospitals.

Knesset Committee for the Advancement of the Status of Women meeting about segregated maternity wards in hospitals (Photo: Al Ittihad)

The meeting was called after Israel Radio reported last week that several hospitals acquiesce to mothers’ requests that they not be put in the same room as either Jewish or Arab mothers in maternity wards, even though doing so is illegal. Racist MK Bezalel Smotrich (Bayit Yehudi) caused an uproar after he said his wife would not want to be in a room with an Arab woman, because he said Arab families are large and noisy and their babies could grow up to be terrorists. Smotrich claimed that most Israeli Jews agree with him, though polling days later showed 61 percent disagree with him.

“The debate about the phenomenon revealed a difficult reality,” Touma-Sliman said, opening the meeting. “Not only is there separation in hospitals, but there is separation based on nationality and race in other places, as well. The health system can and must be an island of sanity.” MK Ahmed Tibi (Ta’al – the Joint List), a gynecologist by profession, said he wants to thank Smotrich for “putting a mirror in front of Israeli society” and saying what many other people do and say. “He and his wife apparently don’t know Jewish history,” Tibi added. “I recommend he go back several decades, so that he learns where these kinds of words come from, because they sound more authentic in German.”

Hospital Managers’ Association chairman Dr. Eran Halpern accused Smotrich of sullying “the cleanest system in Israel.” “There are requests from patients and we deal with complex ethical problems every day, but our situation is good, even compared to the US. A black man in Chicago won’t get the kind of care a Bedouin receives in Soroka [in Beersheba] or Beilinson [in Petah Tikva] hospitals,” he said.

Prof. Drorith Hochner, manager of the women and maternity ward in the Hadassah Mount Scopus Hospital said that Arab and Jewish patients receive the same treatment, but that they try to be considerate of everyone’s requests. “There are Arab women who ask not to be with Jewish women. We try to separate secular and haredi women, for example, so that the secular women won’t disturb the haredi women by using phones on Shabbat,” she said. Asked by Touma-Sliman whether she would agree to a patient’s request not to be in the same room as another patient of Ethiopian origin, Hochner said “certainly,” sparking shouts from others in the meeting.

MK Yussef Jabareen (Hadash – Joint List) responded that “cultural and social reasons are not a defense for racist stances. There is a difference between substantive coordination, like for religious reasons and Sabbath observance, and racism.” MK Touma-Sliman closed the meeting by saying the Health Ministry and hospital directors are responsible for the situation, and they should make sure to follow laws prohibiting discrimination. “First and foremost, the law must be respected, before patients’ preferences,” she stated.

Related:

MK Smotrich: “I Don’t Enjoy Arabs’ Company — They’re My Enemies”