‘Israeli’ Hospital Fires Doctor for Giving Sweets to Wounded Palestinian Boy!

By MEE

A Palestinian doctor was fired from his job after he gave sweets to a wounded Palestinian boy in police custody.

The doctor's family told Middle East Eye that the ‘Israeli’ Hadassah Hospital in occupied al-Quds dismissed Ahmad Mahajna on Sunday, following a weeks-long probe.

The Physicians for Human Rights [PHR] said the termination was the result of "racist, nationalist, and populist witch hunt."

The probe was launched in late October after medical staff held a party in the hospital and gave leftover refreshments to all the patients in the hospital.

Among them was a 16-year-old Palestinian in police custody, who Mahajna and two other hospital staff gave some of the snacks to.

The boy was being treated for wounds he sustained after being shot by the ‘Israeli’ occupation police for allegedly stabbing an ‘Israeli’ settler in occupied al-Quds days earlier. 

The officers securing the patient complained to the hospital management who then issued a statement depicting Mahajna as a "terrorist sympathizer" and called him in for a hearing, according to PHR. 

"Letters of support from patients and colleagues, all describing him as a caring and dedicated physician, proved useless," PHR said on Twitter. 

Mahajna was officially dismissed on Sunday.

"The hospital’s conduct is a vile attempt to pacify those demanding the blood of the detained patient and the physician caring for him," PHR added.

"These actions have an influence on the medical staff, particularly Palestinian employees, and promote a culture of oppression and silencing."

Mahajna’s family condemned the dismissal and said they will raise it with European diplomats in the occupied territories.

They told MEE the decision was made after the family came under an incitement campaign on social media, which targeted two of its members, lawyers Ruslan and Khaled Mahajna, who are related to Ahmad, for their work in representing Palestinian prisoners in ‘Israeli’ courts.

"We will inform ambassadors of the European Union of the racist and intimidating procedure and decision taken by the administration of Hadassah Ein Kerem Hospital," Ruslan Mahajna, Ahmad’s brother, told MEE.

Ahmad, whose family was forcibly displaced to Umm al-Fahm in 1948, completed his medical studies at Germany’s Ulm University.

He returned to work in ‘Israeli’ hospitals where Palestinian citizens have long complained of discriminatory treatment despite occupying almost 21 percent of physician jobs and 23 percent of nursing jobs in the occupied territories. 

Two days before Mahajna gave sweets to the Palestinian boy, a top’ Israeli’ medical official expressed fear of the "Arab womb" and suggested fines on Palestinian mothers giving birth to five children to limit the Palestinian fertility rate in the country.

Gideon Sahar, director of the Department of Thoracic and Heart Surgery at Soroka Hospital in Beersheba, was recorded on video referring to Palestinian citizens of the occupied territories as the "most problematic population."