|
Trending Topics
|
Source: https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/04/israels-arab-moment/610918/
The Coronavirus Crisis Is Bringing Israel's Jewish and Arab Citizens Together
(Atlantic) Yossi Klein Halevi - Israel is facing its first national threat that has nothing to do with the Arab-Israeli conflict. In the coronavirus, Israel's Arab and Jewish citizens are facing a crisis that is bringing us together. Israeli media regularly feature stories of Arab-Jewish intimacy in the quarantine wards. Israel's Yediot Aharonot published a four-page photo essay of Arab and Jewish nurses, featuring Arabs as Israeli heroes. Israel's health-care system is fully integrated. Nearly a fifth of Israel's doctors, a quarter of its nurses, and almost half its pharmacists are Arabs. Arab doctors head hospital departments and emergency rooms; one heads a hospital in the Galilee. Jews and Arabs encounter one another in maternity and cancer wards. The writer is a senior fellow at the Shalom Hartman Institute in Jerusalem.