Adalah Demands that Arab Citizens be Appointed to Senior Positions in Clalit, Israel's Largest Health Care Provider
On 1 June 2008, Adalah sent a letter to the director of the Clalit Health Servies, the largest sick fund in Israel, and to the chairperson of the fund's board of directors, demanding that they ensure the appointment of Arab employees in the fund to senior positions. Clalit is due to approve a number of appointments in the coming days.
Adalah recently learned that a meeting was to be held between the director of Clalit and its board of directors in order to review the appointment of persons to vacant senior positions within the fund, including: four directors in the Haifa, central, Petakh Tikva and southern districts, as well as a national deputy director.
Clalit provides health services to approximately 3.8 million individuals in Israel, around a quarter of whom are Palestinian Arab citizens of the state. These services are delivered through over 1,300 clinics, 14 hospitals and 400 pharmacies, as well as hundreds of laboratories and health centers. The fund employs approximately 30,000 employees who work in various positions, including 84 senior administrative positions. However, despite the large number of Arab members of the health fund, Clalit does not currently employ a single Arab in a senior position.
In the letter, Adalah Attorney Sawsan Zaher emphasized that the responsibility for ensuring suitable representation for Arab citizens of Israel in senior positions in Clalit lies with the fund's board of directors. This is particularly so given the method used for selecting appropriate candidates: a special committee has been appointed to look for such candidates and approve their appointment. Therefore, as Adalah argued, “The absence of a bidding process for filling senior posts serves to prevent appropriate Arab candidates from submitting applications for them.” In addition, the duty to guarantee suitable representation for Arab citizens among employees of public offices should conform to the principle of affirmative action for the appointment of members of vulnerable minorities. Thus failing to appoint Arab citizens to the vacant senior positions in the Clalit sick fund would constitute a violation of the principle of equality and discrimination against potential Arab candidates.
Attorney Zaher further stressed that finding Arab candidates for senior positions in Clalit is an urgent matter so as to provide for the specific needs for Arab patients and to improve the health services they receive.
