Jerusalem Arabs’ escalating attacks on Hadassah’s Mount Scopus Hospital are scaring away medical staff at night. The Knesset suggest “engaging” the Arabs.
The hospital, situated north of the Old City and next to the French Hill neighborhood, also is adjacent to the Issawiya neighborhood, where Arabs have increasingly staged attacks on Jews driving through the area as well as on the hospital. Nearly 40 percent of the hospital’s patients are Arabs.
There were more than 40 incidents of firebomb and stoning attacks on the Mount Scopus facility the past year, including 11 Molotov cocktails on “Nakba Day,” the Arab term for the “catastrophe” of the re-establishment the State of Israel 63 years ago.
Hospital security officers often wear bullet proof vests and helmets and have been forced to use tear gas against Arab attackers, causing choking among some patients, according to recent testimony before the Knesset Welfare and Health committee.
Deputy Health Minister Yaakov Litzman wrote Public Security Minister Yitzchak Aharonovitch (Yisrael Beiteinu) and Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat that medical staff are afraid to travel to the hospital at night and that the situation on Mount Scopus is far worse than at other medical facilities in Israel.
The Knesset committee’s suggestions for improving security included building a defensive wall and “engaging: Arabs in Issawiya.
One Arab doctor at Hadassah said that although he condemns attacks, he alleged they may have been carried out by “settlers” trying to spark a conflict with Arabs.