When there are no more sick Jews, there's time to treat sick Arabs

Adalah Newsletter, Volume 104, May 2013

 If and when the daily bottleneck of patients subsides at the health clinic in the Jewish Naqab (Negev) town of Mitzpe Ramon, and if it is a Thursday or Friday, the doctors drive out to the court-mandated clinic in the unrecognized Bedouin village of ‘Abda. If the patients of ‘Abda find doctors at their clinic, they are spared a 26-kilometer trip, and they do not have to wait for up to weeks for an appointment.

The people of ‘Abda struggled hard against the state to open a clinic to serve their 250 families. In 1994, the Court decided that a clinic must be opened, in the village school, the only building approximating a general-purpose center.

Initially, the clinic was open during normal working hours. Its opening hours were soon reduced, however, at first to three days per week, and then to morning or afternoon only. Now, the clinic is only open for two hours on Thursdays and Fridays, and only then if the doctors at the clinic in Mitzpe Ramon are not busy with patients there.

Over 40% of the people in ‘Abda are elderly, most of whom do not speak Hebrew, have a driver's license or own a car. The trip from ‘Abda to Mitzpe Ramon is 26 kilometers, and if they are not able to use a car, they must somehow travel 4 kilometers to the nearest bus stop. 

On arriving at the Mitzpe Ramon clinic, they are often told that they should have set up an appointment earlier, begging the question, "How could I have known a few days ago that I would become sick today?"

The staff at the clinic do not speak Arabic, and many patients from ‘Abda cannot speak Hebrew, creating a serious and potentially dangerous communication problem. Despite the existence of clear regulations from the Ministry of Health that all health institutions must provide access to Arabic translators, in Mitzpe Ramon, as in hundreds of medical facilities in Israel, Hebrew, Russian, and Ethiopian are all spoken, but not Arabic.