About 15 years ago, I first heard an outspoken complaint about the “exaggerated” number of Arab doctors, nurses, medical technicians, and cleaners in Israel’s hospitals.
The person who complained was a young religious woman, of American origin, who was doing her national service at the Shaare Zedek Medical Center in Jerusalem, and the presence of Arab staff members irritated her.
“After all,” she said, “we are a Jewish state, and the Arabs are our enemies”.
Had I been able to reply, I would have pointed out to her that Israel is indeed a Jewish state, but it is also a democratic one.
I would have also pointed out that around 20% of its citizens and inhabitants are Muslim and Christian Arabs who have the right to vote in the Israeli Knesset elections – and expect to be treated as equals.
The situation isn’t straightforward, since unfortunately Israel is still in a state of war with most of the Arab states, which creates a rather unique security reality.
However, that does not change the fact that the Israeli Arabs are not guilty of constituting a danger to the state, unless proven otherwise.
Thus, what the young woman had said was categorized in my mind as pure, anti-Arab racism. As I remember from my childhood in Haifa, such racism has always been prevalent in Israel to a certain extent, especially in certain right-wing circles.
Not surprisingly, since October 7, 2023, such sentiments have spread and become much stronger due to the horrors committed by Hamas on that day, and because of the hesitation in certain Palestinian circles to condemn them.
The fact that on Oct. 7 quite a few Israeli Arabs were murdered by Hamas in the Gaza environs, while others were taken hostage, did not leave much of an impression on most Israeli Jews.
Following the events in Lebanon a week and a half ago, four badly wounded Israeli soldiers were brought to the intensive care ward at Rambam Medical Center in Haifa.
According to the brother of one of the wounded soldiers, on the night between Friday (August 8) and Saturday (August 9), when his brother woke up from being sedated and ventilated, he was maltreated by an “Arabic-speaking medical team” who didn’t even let his relatives enter the ward.
The story was brought to light in a post by the uncle of the two brothers, Yehoshua Shani, who serves as the chairperson of the Forum of Heroism, a right-wing forum of the families of soldiers killed in the war in Gaza.
The forum favors the continued fighting in the Gaza Strip until a total victory.
It also objected to the deals that were negotiated for the release of the hostages because it felt that the prolonged ceasefire included in them would undermine Israel’s security, impart achievements to Hamas, which it does not deserve, and endanger the lives of the rest of Israel’s citizens and military forces in the long run.
Shani complained that hospitalized Arab terrorists in Israeli hospitals are taken better care of than wounded Israeli soldiers.
“Who watches over our fighters?” he asked.
Rambam examined the allegations and found them to be baseless. The conclusion was supported by the director-general of the Health Ministry, Moshe Bar Siman Tov, as well as various Israeli medical organizations.
However, Shani’s and his nephew’s accusations were rapidly echoed by various right-wing politicians and reporters, who inter alia called for reducing the percentage of Arab professional staff in the Israeli medical system in general and its hospitals in particular.
Arab MKs and left-wing spokespersons referred to the event as another manifestation of poisonous anti-Arab racism.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu remained silent on the issue.
Defense Minister Israel Katz took the side of those who believed that the Arab medical staff at Rambam had behaved atrociously, but then went silent when the accusations against them were rejected out of hand.
And what about Health Minister Haim Katz? Well, he’s currently a temporary replacement, after the haredi (ultra-Orthodox) parties resigned from the government in July 2025.
He serves not only as health minister, but also as construction and housing minister, welfare and social security minister, and his original ministerial post: tourism minister. No one really expected him to say anything on health issues.
Looking at the numbers
According to a study by Bruce Rosen and Sami Miaari, published in 2025 in the Israel Journal of Health Policy Research, in 2010, 8% of the doctors in Israel were Arabs. Thirteen years later, the percentage was up to 25%.
In 2023, Arab dentists comprised 27%, Arab male and female nurses comprised 27%, and Arab pharmacists were 49%. The percentage of Arabs in the Israeli population is 21%.
MK Moshe Saada (Likud) has explained the percentage increase of Arab doctors in the Israeli health system by claiming that there is a system of affirmative action in Israel that works to the advantage of the Arab doctors.
He has also suggested changing affirmative action in the field to benefit those who have done military or national service.
Diaspora Affairs and Combating Antisemitism Minister Amichai Chikli (Likud) has blamed it on the fact that Arab doctors trained in Palestinian universities, such as Nablus and Jenin, are accepted as interns in Israeli hospitals.
The sad fact is that even with all the Arab doctors, the major problem in Israel’s health system today is the serious shortage of doctors in the country.
This is because Israeli universities are not training a sufficient number of doctors; many of the Israelis who study medicine abroad do not return after completing their studies; and among the large number of highly trained Israelis who have left Israel in recent years due to the political and military situation in the country (around 90,000 in 2025), many are doctors.
Thus, one might say that the large numbers of Arab doctors in the Israeli health system are a blessing. Paradoxically, it is said in Arab circles that there are at least 4,000 trained Arab doctors in Israel today who have not managed to find suitable positions.
In conclusion, I would say that one of the problems we must confront is not that there are too many Arabs in our medical system, but that there are not enough Jews in it.
Furthermore, while there are always security issues that must be dealt with, both amongst Israel’s Jewish population and its Arab population, sheer anti-Arab racism in the Jewish population, just like anti-Jewish racism amongst the Arab population, must be dealt with – first and foremost in the education system.
The writer has written journalistic and academic articles, as well as several books, on international relations, Zionism, Israeli politics, and parliamentarism. From 1994 to 2010, she worked at the Knesset Library and the Knesset Research and Information Center.