Arabs seek medical equality
Israel, Medicine, 12/17/1997

An appeal to the Israeli High Court demanded that the Israeli Ministry of Health open up medical centers in a number of unrecognized Arab villages in the Naqab desert, in the south of Israel, where at least 50,000 Arabs, mainly Bedouins, live under very harsh conditions.

The appeal said that pregnant women who need to report to the nearest medical clinic need to travel for up to three hours and sometimes to walk over rough roads since no paved streets exist between their remote villages and the medical centers.

The appellants, members of the "Justice" organization that is active in the Arab sector in Israel, said that in Jewish neighborhoods, pregnant women do not walk more than five minutes to get to the nearest medical center in their community.

They demanded that similar facilities be set up for Arabs as well. They said that the lack of medical services in the unrecognized Arab villages in the Naqab (Negev) has caused serious health problems for children and newly-born infants, noting that 50 percent of those newborn babies are admitted to hospitals in the first year of their life while some 50 percent of the children in those villages suffer from anemia.

Previous Stories:
  Amnesty International denounces Israeli detention policy   (12/15/1997)
  Bedouins in Israel: victims of ongoing discrimination   (11/28/1997)
  The other side of conflict: a tale of three girls   (10/15/1997)

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