A furore has erupted in Israel after unsubstantiated allegations of mistreatment of a wounded Israeli soldier by Arab medical staff were amplified by two senior Israeli government ministers, drawing sharp condemnation from the leading representative body for Palestinian citizens of Israel, which has decried the remarks as a racist, coordinated campaign of incitement.
The controversy traces back to claims made by relatives of an Israel Defense Forces (IDF) soldier who was treated at Haifa’s Rambam Health Care Campus after sustaining injuries in Lebanon. Yehoshua Shani, who chairs a hardline forum that opposes a ceasefire in Gaza and advocates for continuing the Israeli military campaign in the enclave, alleged in an X post Sunday that his nephew was abused by Arab hospital employees. Shani claimed on-duty nurses, all of whom he described as “Arabic speakers”, ignored the wounded soldier’s requests for water and roughly repositioned him in bed “like a sardine”, slamming his head against the frame.
The soldier’s brother, David Chesterman, echoed these unproven claims on Instagram. Chesterman claimed he broke down the door to his brother’s intensive care unit room after the family was denied access — a standard protocol for ICU wards globally. He alleged the soldier begged for water with no staff nearby, and that his brother described being brutally repositioned, with his head slammed into the bed by staff who did not care about his condition.
Far-right Israeli cabinet members Israel Katz, the country’s defense minister, and Itamar Ben Gvir, national security minister, seized on the claims to call for a full investigation into the alleged misconduct, amplifying the unvetted allegations across public platforms. Katz stated that he viewed the testimonies about the treatment of wounded IDF soldiers with “great seriousness”, and confirmed he had instructed the IDF to launch an immediate, comprehensive probe into the claims alongside hospital leadership and relevant authorities. Ben Gvir added that if the claims proved true, they would amount to a “grave scandal” that should concern all Israeli citizens, and called for an uncompromised investigation that would examine whether the alleged incident constituted nationalist harassment.
In an initial statement following the emergence of the claims, Rambam Health Care Campus said it had conducted an internal review of the incident and “rejects the claims that the patient was treated inappropriately”. But reporting from Israeli newspaper Haaretz found that many Palestinian medical professionals at the facility criticized the initial response, arguing it failed to directly push back against allegations that specifically targeted Arab staff members. One anonymous medical professional stated that the entire episode amounted to a broad attack on all Arab medical workers across Israel.
Days later, Rambam director Dr Michal Makel sent an internal memo offering support to the hospital’s workforce. Makel wrote that any attempt to draw divisions between staff members based on their language, cultural background, or ethnic identity is unacceptable, and does not align with the institutional values of Rambam. Even this step failed to satisfy some Arab medical staff, however, with one professional telling Haaretz that clear, unwavering, and public backing from the hospital administration was required, and that the vague internal support was insulting and disappointing.
The High Follow-Up Committee for Arab Citizens of Israel, the primary umbrella organization representing Palestinian citizens of Israel who hold Israeli citizenship, issued a blistering condemnation of the two ministers, accusing them of weaponizing baseless claims to incite public hatred against Arab medical workers. “Fascists launch campaigns spreading lies and baseless accusations for no reason other than that those targeted are Arabs,” the committee said in a statement. It added that despite the wave of allegations, no credible evidence has been presented to prove that any Arab medical professional has discriminated against patients based on identity.
The committee also noted that this type of racist incitement against Arab workers in the Israeli health sector is not a new development, and has been ongoing for years. It argued that the campaign stems from resentment among far-right political actors over the large share of Arab citizens employed across all tiers of Israel’s health system, including doctors, nurses, pharmacists and other frontline and administrative staff.