26 oct 2016
One of the suspects, Dr. Michael Zis
The Israel Police arrests three individuals suspected of running a network that would mediate the selling and buying of organs for transplant purposes; the doctor suspected of being involved was also investigated for similar actions in the past.
Three suspects were arrested Tuesday by the Israel Police for allegedly running a network for buying and selling organs for transplantation purposes. The three would allegedly find people who needed money, find financially stable people in need of a new organ—a kidney, for instance—and mediate the deal between them.
One of the suspects is Dr. Michael Zis, who had already been suspected of taking part in a similar enterprise in 2007. In that case, he was suspected of performing surgery on patients who had agreed to donate their kidneys in return for payment.
Zis fled Israel, staying in Ukraine for two years, but was extradited back to Israel in 2009. About a year ago, his license to practice medicine in Israel was suspended by the Ministry of Health.
The Israel Police arrests three individuals suspected of running a network that would mediate the selling and buying of organs for transplant purposes; the doctor suspected of being involved was also investigated for similar actions in the past.
Three suspects were arrested Tuesday by the Israel Police for allegedly running a network for buying and selling organs for transplantation purposes. The three would allegedly find people who needed money, find financially stable people in need of a new organ—a kidney, for instance—and mediate the deal between them.
One of the suspects is Dr. Michael Zis, who had already been suspected of taking part in a similar enterprise in 2007. In that case, he was suspected of performing surgery on patients who had agreed to donate their kidneys in return for payment.
Zis fled Israel, staying in Ukraine for two years, but was extradited back to Israel in 2009. About a year ago, his license to practice medicine in Israel was suspended by the Ministry of Health.
15 apr 2016
MK Aida Touma-Sliman
A meeting of a Knesset committee held Wednesday debated the issue of segregation between Palestinian and Jewish women in Israeli maternity wards, following media reports and allegations of racial discrimination in Israel’s hospitals, according to a Knesset press release.
A recent report by Israel Radio exposed various Israeli hospitals that segregate Palestinian and Jewish women in their maternity wards -- a policy the hospitals denied, though some acknowledged they accommodate requests by women for separate rooms.
Though not an official policy in Israeli hospitals, testimonies documented by Haaretz describe women being directed to separate rooms either automatically or at their request as “an attractive bonus for those who choose to give birth in a hospital.”
Chairwoman MK Aida Touma-Suleiman of the Joint List said at the committee meeting “the discussion surrounding the phenomenon has exposed a difficult reality -- not only the segregation in hospitals, but the entire issue of segregation based on nationality and race which exists in other places. The health system can and should be an island of sanity.”
She criticized Jewish Home Party MK Bezalel Smotrich’s inflammatory tweets in reaction to the media reports, which said: “My wife is really no racist, but after giving birth, she wants to rest and not have a party like Arab women do after giving birth.”
In another tweet, he said, "It's only natural my wife would not want to lie next to someone who just gave birth to a baby that might murder her baby in another 20 years."
In spite of the outrage the tweets garnered from across the political spectrum, MK Ahmad Tibi, also of the Joint List, pointed out Smotrich merely verbalized already commonly held racist views and “thanked” Smotrich for "placing a mirror in front of the ugly face of Israeli society.”
“Smotrich and his wife have apparently not read Jewish history. I suggest that he go back a few decades, so he’ll know where these words originate from, because in German it sounds more authentic,” Tibi added.
Former health minister MK Yael German of the Yesh Atid party brushed off accusations of racism saying that Israel's health system "is a model of coexistence” and noted that the percentage of Palestinian employees in the health system is higher than in any other government system, "because there is no discrimination in this system.”
For Zionist Camp MK Yael Cohen Paran, segregation came down to business. “The fact that [pregnant] women ‘shop around’ for maternity wards creates a situation where hospitals try to attract them. Hospitals offer private rooms and a private midwife for money. This is what ultimately creates the segregation.”
CEO of the Rabin Medical Center Dr. Eran Halpern defended the ethical soundness of Israel’s medical system as the “cleanest” system in the country, remarking on cases where Palestinian doctors treated Israeli soldiers and Jewish doctors treated “terrorists.”
“Our situation is good,” Halpern said, and went on to favorably compare Israel’s hospitals to those in the United States by saying “a black man in Chicago will not receive the same treatment he would receive at the Soroka or Rabin medical centers.”
Dr. Sigal Taub of the Health Ministry attested to the “homogeneousness” among hospital patients in Israeli hospitals, dismissing allegations of segregation as “false.”
Two other Israeli doctors addressed the committee insisting that separation in maternity wards is not racist, saying that Palestinians also sometimes ask to be separated, and that haredi women might be separated from secular women who have tattoos or speak on their cell phones during Shabbat.
In response, MK Yousef Jabareen of the Joint List said “cultural and social compatibility cannot defend racist positions. A distinction must be made between practical compatibility -- such as religion and keeping the Sabbath -- and racist positions.”
Dr. Lina Qassem from Physicians for Human Rights - Israel (PHRI) said that during her time as an intern at Shaare Zedek hospital she regularly witnessed explicitly racist attitudes among midwives.
“There, women are not called by their names, but are referred to as ‘the Ethiopian,’ ‘the Arab,’ or ‘the Russian.’”
(Palestinian) women from occupied East Jerusalem are treated with "disrespect and prejudice," Qassem added, and are “placed in the corridor, (which has) medical repercussions as well. When a midwife brings an Arab baby to the nursery, workers tell her: ‘What, you brought another terrorist?’”
Tamar Doron, a former nurse and PHRI member told the committee that midwives are instructed to only put Jewish women in the spacious rooms.
MK Touma-Sliman concluded the meeting saying, ”This meeting is particularly important today, when the atmosphere in the country is becoming more and more racist,” calling on the Health Ministry and hospital directors to lead a policy which “respects the state law which forbids discrimination.”
At the end of March, Touma-Suleiman charged other parliament members of using incitement and racism for political gain, referencing a recent poll conducted by the Coalition for the Fight against Racism reporting that 52 percent of Israelis believe Israeli society is becoming more racist.
”If we do not find ways to change this reality, we will find ourselves in a serious problem,” Touma-Suleiman said in her address.
”Unfortunately, there are MKs who use incitement or racism against the Arab population, against asylum seekers, and against other groups within society, only for the sake of political gain and to get more votes.”
A meeting of a Knesset committee held Wednesday debated the issue of segregation between Palestinian and Jewish women in Israeli maternity wards, following media reports and allegations of racial discrimination in Israel’s hospitals, according to a Knesset press release.
A recent report by Israel Radio exposed various Israeli hospitals that segregate Palestinian and Jewish women in their maternity wards -- a policy the hospitals denied, though some acknowledged they accommodate requests by women for separate rooms.
Though not an official policy in Israeli hospitals, testimonies documented by Haaretz describe women being directed to separate rooms either automatically or at their request as “an attractive bonus for those who choose to give birth in a hospital.”
Chairwoman MK Aida Touma-Suleiman of the Joint List said at the committee meeting “the discussion surrounding the phenomenon has exposed a difficult reality -- not only the segregation in hospitals, but the entire issue of segregation based on nationality and race which exists in other places. The health system can and should be an island of sanity.”
She criticized Jewish Home Party MK Bezalel Smotrich’s inflammatory tweets in reaction to the media reports, which said: “My wife is really no racist, but after giving birth, she wants to rest and not have a party like Arab women do after giving birth.”
In another tweet, he said, "It's only natural my wife would not want to lie next to someone who just gave birth to a baby that might murder her baby in another 20 years."
In spite of the outrage the tweets garnered from across the political spectrum, MK Ahmad Tibi, also of the Joint List, pointed out Smotrich merely verbalized already commonly held racist views and “thanked” Smotrich for "placing a mirror in front of the ugly face of Israeli society.”
“Smotrich and his wife have apparently not read Jewish history. I suggest that he go back a few decades, so he’ll know where these words originate from, because in German it sounds more authentic,” Tibi added.
Former health minister MK Yael German of the Yesh Atid party brushed off accusations of racism saying that Israel's health system "is a model of coexistence” and noted that the percentage of Palestinian employees in the health system is higher than in any other government system, "because there is no discrimination in this system.”
For Zionist Camp MK Yael Cohen Paran, segregation came down to business. “The fact that [pregnant] women ‘shop around’ for maternity wards creates a situation where hospitals try to attract them. Hospitals offer private rooms and a private midwife for money. This is what ultimately creates the segregation.”
CEO of the Rabin Medical Center Dr. Eran Halpern defended the ethical soundness of Israel’s medical system as the “cleanest” system in the country, remarking on cases where Palestinian doctors treated Israeli soldiers and Jewish doctors treated “terrorists.”
“Our situation is good,” Halpern said, and went on to favorably compare Israel’s hospitals to those in the United States by saying “a black man in Chicago will not receive the same treatment he would receive at the Soroka or Rabin medical centers.”
Dr. Sigal Taub of the Health Ministry attested to the “homogeneousness” among hospital patients in Israeli hospitals, dismissing allegations of segregation as “false.”
Two other Israeli doctors addressed the committee insisting that separation in maternity wards is not racist, saying that Palestinians also sometimes ask to be separated, and that haredi women might be separated from secular women who have tattoos or speak on their cell phones during Shabbat.
In response, MK Yousef Jabareen of the Joint List said “cultural and social compatibility cannot defend racist positions. A distinction must be made between practical compatibility -- such as religion and keeping the Sabbath -- and racist positions.”
Dr. Lina Qassem from Physicians for Human Rights - Israel (PHRI) said that during her time as an intern at Shaare Zedek hospital she regularly witnessed explicitly racist attitudes among midwives.
“There, women are not called by their names, but are referred to as ‘the Ethiopian,’ ‘the Arab,’ or ‘the Russian.’”
(Palestinian) women from occupied East Jerusalem are treated with "disrespect and prejudice," Qassem added, and are “placed in the corridor, (which has) medical repercussions as well. When a midwife brings an Arab baby to the nursery, workers tell her: ‘What, you brought another terrorist?’”
Tamar Doron, a former nurse and PHRI member told the committee that midwives are instructed to only put Jewish women in the spacious rooms.
MK Touma-Sliman concluded the meeting saying, ”This meeting is particularly important today, when the atmosphere in the country is becoming more and more racist,” calling on the Health Ministry and hospital directors to lead a policy which “respects the state law which forbids discrimination.”
At the end of March, Touma-Suleiman charged other parliament members of using incitement and racism for political gain, referencing a recent poll conducted by the Coalition for the Fight against Racism reporting that 52 percent of Israelis believe Israeli society is becoming more racist.
”If we do not find ways to change this reality, we will find ourselves in a serious problem,” Touma-Suleiman said in her address.
”Unfortunately, there are MKs who use incitement or racism against the Arab population, against asylum seekers, and against other groups within society, only for the sake of political gain and to get more votes.”
22 jan 2016
A medic looks at blood stain of a Palestinian man who was killed by Israeli undercover forces during a raid at Al-Ahly hospital in the West Bank city of al-Khalil (Hebron) on November 12, 2015.
British doctors have called for the removal of Israel from the World Medical Association (WMA) over claims of “medical torture” on Palestinians seeking treatment.
Some 71 UK doctors have started to pressure the WMA to revoke the membership of the Israel Medical Association, over claims that “our doctors perform medical torture on Palestinian patients,” said Ze'ev Feldman, the representative of the Israeli doctors, during a Knesset meeting held on the subject of boycotts against Israeli academic institutions, on Wednesday.
According to Press TV/Al Ray, if the British physicians succeed, the Tel Aviv regime will be banned from taking part in international medical conferences and publishing in journals.
The move follows similar measures launched by scholars around the world over the past few months. In December, over 200 South African scholars released a statement announcing their support of an academic boycott of Israel.
In November, the American Anthropological Association, the largest professional organization of anthropologists in the world, approved a resolution to boycott Israeli academic institutions.
Moreover, the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement against Israel, known as BDS, is gaining momentum in US college campuses and churches as well as in many places in Europe. The BDS movement seeks to end the Israeli occupation and colonization of Palestinian lands.
British doctors have called for the removal of Israel from the World Medical Association (WMA) over claims of “medical torture” on Palestinians seeking treatment.
Some 71 UK doctors have started to pressure the WMA to revoke the membership of the Israel Medical Association, over claims that “our doctors perform medical torture on Palestinian patients,” said Ze'ev Feldman, the representative of the Israeli doctors, during a Knesset meeting held on the subject of boycotts against Israeli academic institutions, on Wednesday.
According to Press TV/Al Ray, if the British physicians succeed, the Tel Aviv regime will be banned from taking part in international medical conferences and publishing in journals.
The move follows similar measures launched by scholars around the world over the past few months. In December, over 200 South African scholars released a statement announcing their support of an academic boycott of Israel.
In November, the American Anthropological Association, the largest professional organization of anthropologists in the world, approved a resolution to boycott Israeli academic institutions.
Moreover, the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement against Israel, known as BDS, is gaining momentum in US college campuses and churches as well as in many places in Europe. The BDS movement seeks to end the Israeli occupation and colonization of Palestinian lands.