Member of Knesset Bezalel Smotrich (Jewish Home) sparked a political firestorm on Tuesday after touting alleged segregation between Jewish and Arab women in Israeli maternity wards.
“My wife is not racist, but after giving birth she wants to rest, not suffer through the parties customarily held by Arab families,” he tweeted. He also posted, “This isn’t just about convenience. Jews and Arabs have been fighting over this country for a hundred years. It’s only natural that my wife doesn’t want to be in a bed next to someone who just had a baby that 20 years from now, might want to kill her baby.”
Smotrich’s remarks were compounded by an Israel Radio report suggesting that Hadassah’s Mount Scopus and Ein Kerem hospitals in Jerusalem, Sourasky Medical Center in Tel Aviv, Shaare Zedek Medical Center in Jerusalem, and Meir Medical Center in Kfar Saba were separating Jewish and Arab women in their maternity wards, in clear violation of Israeli Health Ministry directives. All of the hospitals in question insisted that such separation occurred randomly, and not as a matter of policy.
Smotrich’s tweets garnered condemnation from across the Israeli political spectrum.
“Beloved is man as he is created in the image [of God]. Any man, be he Jewish or Arab,” Jewish Home party leader and Education Minister Naftali Bennett said.
Israeli opposition leader Isaac Herzog (Zionist Union) said, “A newborn is pure. He knows no hatred. We won’t stand for hospitals separating Jewish and Arab women in maternity wards. We will not tolerate despicable segregation between human beings.”
Yesh Atid lawmaker MK Yael German said Smotrich’s remarks were “part of a delegitimization campaign against Israeli Arabs.”
Zionist Union MK Stav Shaffir noted, “Smotrich is the kind of man you see all over the world. Give them a group—any group—to join and they will pollute it with blind hatred and racism.”
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{Matzav.com Israel}
Why would a fragile woman who just gave birth put her life and that of her newborn baby in danger of getting stabbed by visiting relatives of the arab “person”.
The whole discussion has gotten out of hand. De facto, hospitals generally separate Jews and Arabs, in all wards. Hospitals have strict visiting hours so that patients can get the rest they need, but Arabs visit and celebrate in huge numbers, with the consequent noise, and unfortunately, the Jews can’t get them to leave when visiting hours are over. They are just totally illogical. Had the Israelis just calmly insisted that no one can stay past hours, and noise must be kept down, without fearing them as they don’t fear the Jews (usually), it would never have become an issue. All this talk now makes it impossible for any Jew to have his needs respected, since hospitals will have to bend over backwards to drive the Jews crazy.
What a foolish suggestion: all the goyim are going to scream apartheid while the Arab are not made really hurt. Either throw them all out of the country, or make smart regulations that target Arabs without explicitly speaking out the anti Arab sentiment – such as arresting noise offenders, enforcing a limited amount of visitors, have the floors tiled with Koranic verses so that muzies won’t be able to step on it, have muhamed cartoons in the hospital rooms, have hospital serve pork as a general menu and have kosher food available through a private charity which would happen to serve only Jews, etc. Nothing will help though until the judenrat is thrown out of all positions of power.