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Swell of Arabs in Israeli health care since 2010, study suggests

Arabs make up nearly half of Israeli pharmacists and are also heavily represented in nursing and dentistry, per new research.

Medical workers at Hadassah Mount Scopus Hospital on May 19, 2022. Photo by Olivier Fitoussi/Flash90.
Medical workers at Hadassah Mount Scopus Hospital on May 19, 2022. Photo by Olivier Fitoussi/Flash90.

Nearly 50% of pharmacists in Israel are Arabs, despite the latter comprising about 21% of the Jewish state’s population, according to a new study published in the Israel Journal of Health Policy Research.

The researchers, who are all affiliated with Israeli institutions, also found large numbers of Arab-Israeli and Arab nurses and dentists in Israel based on data from the Central Bureau of Statistics and other Israeli government bodies.

In 2023, among Israel’s working population, Arab citizens and legal residents of eastern Jerusalem accounted for one in every four doctors, and 27% each of nurses and dentists, per the study. Nearly half (49%) of Israeli pharmacists are Arab.

Those percentages are substantially higher than in 2010, when just 8% of physicians, 17% of nurses, 19% of dentists and 28% of pharmacists were Arab.

During the 2022-23 academic year, the share of Arab students in Israeli educational institutions was 70% in pharmacy, 33% in nursing, 23% in dentistry and 9% in medicine, the researchers noted.

Many Arab medical, dentistry and pharmacy students studied and trained outside of Israel, primarily in Palestinian Authority institutions in Judea and Samaria, and in Jordan and other Arabic-speaking countries, the data suggests.

The Jewish state “does not train enough health professionals to meet its needs, particularly in medicine and dentistry, and accordingly, Israel relies heavily on professionals trained abroad,” the study states.

That creates “opportunities for Israeli Arabs, who have demonstrated substantial willingness and ability to train outside of Israel—in Europe, in nearby Arab countries, and in the Palestinian Authority,” it added.

The study notes that the “Israel–Hamas War has been a major source of tensions on hospital wards between Arab and Jewish professionals,” adding that a “major Ministry of Health initiative had been launched to address those tensions.”

In September, dozens of Israeli health-care professionals demanded that Israeli Health Minister Uriel Buso take action after police arrested a physician from Soroka Medical Center in Beersheva on suspicion of pledging allegiance to the ISIS terrorist organization.

Muhammad Azzam, 34, born in Nazareth, had been living in Beersheva where he worked as a specialist at Soroka. He was indicted on Aug. 8.

In a letter, 19 medical professionals demanded tough measures against what they say is a growing phenomenon of Muslim doctors supporting Islamist terror groups and their ideology.

“The events of Oct. 7 should serve as a glaring red warning light for all of us,” the doctors wrote, claiming that Soroka also “dismissed a nurse after she complained about staff members at the hospital who praised those responsible for the Simchat Torah massacre, while the doctor continues to consume horrific and violent content.” (The terror attacks on Oct. 7, 2023, occurred on the Jewish holiday of Simchat Torah.)

Many Muslim Israeli doctors support the country in the current war, including Dr. Tarek Abu Arar of Ar’ara Banegev, who was held hostage at gunpoint by Hamas terrorists for several hours on Oct. 7. The physician works at Barzilai Medical Center in Ashkelon and volunteers in his free time with the United Hatzalah emergency medical service.

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