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Crossing Religious Lines in an Israeli Hospital
(New York Times) Souad Mekhennet - In the recovery room at Hadassah-Ein Kerem hospital in Jerusalem, doctors and nurses hover over patients. Manar Igbarya, 25, a Palestinian Muslim, is giving an Orthodox Jewish woman an injection and inspecting a bandage on her leg. Everyone is chatting in Hebrew. Muna al-Ayan, 22, who works as a secretary in the hospital, wears a hijab. She was accepted at the hospital because "all they cared about was how I do my job." Ashgan, 35, works in the operating room as a nurse. "We are a team here, and there is no difference, if one is Jewish or Muslim or Christian: The task is to help the patients," Ms. Igbarya said. In some cases, Muslim nurses treat Israeli soldiers wounded in fights with Palestinians while their Jewish colleagues also attend to Palestinians who attacked Jews. "We treat first the patient, and then maybe later we hear what the story was," Ashgan said. "As long as we keep politics out of it, all is good."