Adalah Demands Health Clinic for Kahla and Makhool in the Negev

On 31 December 2014, the NGO Adalah sent a letter to Israel’s Deputy Health Minister and to the Clalit Health Services calling on them to establish a health clinic for the Arab Bedouin residents of the villages of Kahla and Makhool in the Negev. In the letter, Sawsan Zaher, an attorney with Adalah, wrote that, due to the lack of clinics in the two villages having a total population of more than 2,000 persons, residents are forced to travel to the town of Kseifeh some 9 km away in order to receive professional medical treatment. Compounding the problem is the absence of any regular public transportation between the two villages and Kseifeh, which makes it more difficult to seek medical treatment, particularly for women and children whose families do not own a car.

2015-02-03

In his correspondence, Zaher also noted that, according to the National Health Law, the state is required to provide health services to these villages. Maintaining the status quo, he wrote, constitutes a violation of both this law as well as the inherent human right of the Bedouin residents of these villages to equal health services. The letter added: “We do not see this same violation of health rights in nearby Jewish towns. There we find more than one health clinic, and health services are available on a permanent basis for all Jewish residents. The current situation is entirely to the detriment of the residents of Kahla and Makhool in receiving equal medical treatment.”

The villages of Kahla and Makhool were officially recognized by the state in 2003 as part of the Abu Basma Regional Council. Even though 12 years have elapsed since they received formal recognition, the conditions of basic services and infrastructure in the two villages remain essentially unchanged, making them hardly better than those of any of the still unrecognized villages in the Negev.