'Why is an Israeli hospital ward mostly serving Palestinians?'

The Knesset Health Committee postponed a discussion Monday on the proposed Medical Tourism Law for its second and third reading - a bill aimed at regulating the entry of non-Israelis to receive medical treatment in Israel. Among issues up for discussion was the question of whether the bill, which would restrict the ability of 'medical tourists' to pay for use of Israel's medical system, would also apply to Palestinian Authority residents.

Prior to the hearing, a researcher from the Lavi watchdog organization discussed the situation in the Pediatric Hematology-Oncology Department at Hadassah Ein Kerem Hospital in Jerusalem, in light of reports received by the organization that the majority of the hospitalized patients are not Israeli, and that there are hardly any Israeli citizens there at all.

A fieldworker who visited the department last weekend spoke with a department staff member, who told him that "most of the [patients in the] department are Palestinians. Today there's one Jew, two Russians and the rest are Palestinians."

A Lavi spokesperson called the finding a symptom of a larger "national calamity" afflicting Israel's healthcare system.

"The increasing number of Palestinian patients in Israeli hospitals comes at the expense of Israeli patients," a Lavi report claims.

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