Behadrey Investigates: Who Wants to Give Birth next to Arabs?

The media announcement that hospitals separate the Arab and Jews in maternity wards –a practice strictly forbidden by law-has sparked much discussion on the topic of racism. MK Bezalel Smotrich’s tweet that, “ my wife is not racist but after birth she wants to rest- not the large feasts that commonly take place in the hospital rooms of Arab women after birth” has fueled the storm.

Is this pure racism? How would this post have been received had it been written by someone else? We wanted to understand and so we decided to check it out. The question is; would you want to room with an Arab woman?

Karen, a chareidi mother of two daughters living in central Israel responds: “I don’t want to sound racist but yes it would bother me. For the following 3 reasons:”
1)The huge amount of visitors they receive- complete with fresh cooked food for the new mother.
2)They speak very loudly.
3)Personal safety
Shani, also chareidi and from central Israel says,” I shared a room after birth with an Arab woman and she received huge numbers of visitors. There was constant noise. Is it always like this? I can’t say for sure but out of my 4 births, twice I had an Arab roommate and this was the matzav.
Mali says,” it’s not only Arab roommates that bother me. Even the Arab cleaning staff bothers me.”
Tovi, mother of two says, ”I can’t really answer that question because I never had an Arab roommate, But I did hear from others that it is always a balagan.”
“This is a cultural issue,” says a woman who would like to remain anonymous. “It’s wonderful, all the happiness and support [that the many visitors show] but not at the expense of the other new mothers in the room.”
“I would be happy to share a room with an Arab, a Druze, a Sudanese, an Eritrean. Also with someone who is very frum, a settler, a chassidita,a chiloni, an American or a French immigrant etc., ”says Michal Chernovsky.
“In general it is not a matter of whether or not you are prepared to do so- this is our country- we are a citizens and this is what is. Thank G-d we have relatively good socialized medicine here- that serves everyone regardless of race religion or gender- and so it must remain. Anyone who dreams of public places serving only people like him- is in the wrong country.”

“The nurses always separate people according to their race. Also according to whether or not they are religious- because it is simply more comfortable for people to be with those like them, says Didi Shor. It seems like someone is looking for a reason to complain about how racist our country is- and chose a stupid issue that has already been hashed to death. There really isn’t such thing as racism during a terror wave. It’s just the natural fear of healthy people who want to stay alive…”

'בחדרי' גם ברשתות החברתיות - הצטרפו!