25/8/97
The
hypocritical oath
Those racist Jew doctors at Hadassah Hospital booted out all its Palestinian
patients as revenge
for the latest
terrorist bombing.
It must
be true, because
a politician said
so.
Shame on
you, Hadassah.
Thank you, Riyad
Za'anoun, for
confirming such
a terrible thing.
Someone
a bit more cynical
than I might suggest
the politician
is lying.
But this guy's a health minister, the health minister of all the Palestinians,
which must mean
he knows the unbelievable-but-true
evils done to
his own people.
If you
have any further
reason to doubt
this gentleman,
it may help to
know he confirmed
this charge from
his hospital bed.
At Hadassah.
Outside
his window, he
must have seen
a wicked Jewish
doctor banishing
all the Palestinians
from the hospital
grounds.
The claim
was originally
made by another
source we cannot
possibly doubt,
a Palestinian
university --
Bir Zeit, a world-famous
source of knowledge
and fact. On Bir
Zeit's Web site,
the Palestinian
Society for the
Protection of
Human Rights and
the Environment
said, on August
7: ג€In a serious
and racist precedent,
the Hadassah Ein
Kerem administration
expelled all Palestinian
patients from
the hospital after
the bombings in
West Jerusalem.ג€
The report
goes on to cite
three such cases,
including a woman
kicked out of
intensive care,
and a man with
a severe spinal
infection ג€forced
to hire a taxi
and leave as quickly
as possible.ג€
Quite a
formidable alliance
of truth: a human
rights group,
a university,
a health minister.
On the
other hand, we
have the claim
of Prof. Shmuel
Penchas that they
lied.
Well, what
do you expect
from a man who
runs a racially
prejudiced hospital?
Hey, I'll bet
Penchas himself
was involved in
the selection
of Arabs for collective
punishment. Jew
doctors are like
that.
So who
are we to believe?
I happened
to be in that
very hospital,
and checked it
out. I took one
step past the
front door, and
already I could
see there was
a whiff of racism
to the place.
They made
me open my bag,
to check that
I wasn't an Arab
terrorist bringing
in hand grenades.
What could bring
them to presume
such a danger?
The ultimate
proof that Hadassah
has kicked out
sick Arabs is
scattered
throughout the Ein Karem hospital: the presence of sick Arabs. It's a slick
trick: keep a
few of 'em around,
for show.
Sure. What
do you bet they're
all from Gaza,
real pitiful cases,
and they all claim
to love Hadassah?
All we need is
to hear one of
them say that,
to know we're
being duped.
Guess what?
First guy I spoke
to was my roommate:
an Arab. From
Gaza.
What're you here for, I asked.
ג€Leukemia.ג€
Said his name is Ahmed, that he thanked God for Hadassah Hospital. ג€I don't
want to say it's
the best hospital
in the world.
But one of the
best, definitely.ג€
Perfect.
I mentioned his health minister's complaint, and Ahmed looked at me like I was
crazy. He couldn't
find a bad word
to say about anyone
in the hospital,
but on the other
hand, he didn't
volunteer a good
word about his
minister, either.
Just what I thought.
I'm sure if I had informed Ahmed that these Jew doctors threatened to transplant
AIDS into him
instead of bone
marrow unless
he said all the
right things,
Ahmed would have
denied it.
My
other roommate
is named Mahmud.
He's from Nablus.
Another Palestinian
kept around for
show, undoubtedly
brainwashed by
Penchas's conniving
Jew doctors. When
Mahmud heard that
he was supposed
to have been thrown
out because of
his race, he laughed
derisively. ג€Nobody
told me to leave.
They're taking
good care of me
here. Did they
really say those
things? Ridiculous,
ridiculous.ג€
But sure enough, just as we finished chatting, guess what? The hospital disconnected his IV and told him to leave.
So, Mahmud: you're kicked out.
No, he said, smiling happily: ג€I'm allowed to go home.ג€
As he left, he bestowed a silent prayer on Hadassah for saving his life.
WE HAVE become accustomed to outrageous lies in a one-way propaganda war.
It's a tactic the Palestinians didn't invent. They're not even good at it, but
it doesn't take
much these days
to spread malicious
lies to a dumbed
public. The henchman
of credibility
is shamelessness.
They have made inane claims before, laughably idiotic accusations no half-wit
should believe.
But with this,
they have gone
too far. This
isn't merely intellectual
dishonesty: it
is profound immorality.
It would be easier to accuse Mother Teresa of racism than Hadassah.
Penchas's hospital holds a mythic awe not just among Palestinians but throughout
the Arab world.
If someone has
but one good word
to say about Israel,
that word will
always be ג€Hadassah.ג€
Jewish doctors treat Arab patients with the same dedication as Hadassah's Arab
doctors treat
Jews. The place
is a model of
integration, of
harmony, of indifference
to difference.
It doesn't have to be drummed into staffers: it is basic to the culture of this
mini-city, where
some 15,000 people
come and go on
an average day.
Hell, you could bring in an Arab who's just blown to bits a dozen Jews, and
the people at
Hadassah will
do what they must
to save his life.
They may not want to, but they will obey the Oath.
But ... what am I going on about? I've told you nothing about Hadassah's reputation that isn't universally known.
Sadly, when a human-rights group, a university, and a minister fire off an accusation, some poor spokesman has to dignify the comments with a response.
Never
mind what he'd
like to say. That
would be something
like what Hadassah's
spokesman, Yossi
Shoval, told me
afterward: ג€It
is a pity we should
have to regard
this defamation
in an apologetic
manner,ג€ he said,
shaking his head
in disbelief at
the perfidy. ג€But
I had to produce
statistics. I
had to prove our
hands are clean.
It was like having
to prove we didn't
kill Jesus.ג€
He was referring, of course, to the ג€first Palestinian.ג€
Coming soon: Why Hadassah Hospital killed JFK.
