Ma’an News reports on the “first Jewish woman” to be treated at Ramallah Hospital.
I was happily surprised at how well the Palestinian nurses and doctors treated me here, in fact I feel pampered,” new mother Nisreen, a Jewish citizen of Israel, told Ma’an Wednesday night after delivering her first child in a Ramallah hospital.
She had been out shopping with her husband, a Palestinian from the village of Sakhnain in Israel, when she felt intense labor pains. Rather than make the hours long trip back to Haifa through notorious checkpoints, Nisreen’s husband suggested they go to hospital in the West Bank.
Pale but smiling, Nisreen recalled how friends helped her into a car and took her to the Ramallah Hospital. “I hope my child can have a Palestinian id card,” she mused.
Hours after the birth of a healthy 2.3 kg boy, the new mom received a bouquet of roses from President Mahmoud Abbas, who congratulated her on the delivery, and wished her and her son the best of health.
PA Minister of Health Fathi Abu Moghli said the woman was admitted to hospital with severe pain, adding that the labor had come on quickly. She gave birth within hours of arriving.
Officials reported to Israeli liaison officers that the woman had been admitted. Procedure appeared to dictate that Nisreen be taken and transferred to an Israeli hospital, but on her insistence she was permitted to stay.
“Nisreen is the first Jewish woman to be treated at Ramallah Hospital,” Abu Moghli said, recalling the Hippocratic Oath obliging doctors to treat every patient regardless of their religion, political beliefs or race.
As an added bonus, he said Nisreen would not be asked to pay hospital fees, and would be treated as any Palestinian would be.
Of course, as we have come to expect from Ma’an and other palestinian news sources, they are missing an important fact.
An Israeli woman has given birth in a Palestinian hospital – an extremely rare occurrence that won her flowers from the Palestinian president.
Nisreen Chayedri, who grew up Jewish but converted to Islam, says she was shopping in the West Bank town of Ramallah Wednesday when she went into labour. Her husband rushed her to the nearest hospital, where she delivered a baby boy.
While Jewish Israelis are barred from visiting Palestinian areas because of security concerns, Israeli-Arab citizens can, though not many do. Few would use the Palestinian medical system, which is far less developed than the Israeli one.
Nisreen Chayedri says she received VIP treatment. The hospital found a Hebrew-speaking doctor to translate, and she got a visit from Ramallah’s mayor and a bouquet from President Mahmoud Abbas.
So what was initially presented as a story of palestinian benevolence towards a Jew is really the story of palestinians not recognizing a Jewish convert to Islam as Muslim.
