The Health Care of the Arabs in Israel
Published in cooperation with the International Center for Peace in the Middle East, Tel Aviv
The International Center for Peace in the Middle East (ICPME) gratefully acknowledges the Ford Foundation for making this project possible. The views expressed in the publications of the ICPME are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the trustees, officers, or staff of the ICPME.
The Status and Condition of the Arabs in Israel
A project under the direction of Professor Henry Rosenfeld
The 750,000 Israeli Arabs are a national minority making up 17 percent of the population of Israel. In 1987 the International Center for Peace in the Middle East, together with Professor Henry Rosenfeld, director of the project, initiated a comprehensive research project on the status and condition of the Arabs in Israel. The focus of the research is on the Arabs' legal status, health and social services, and local government in Arab communities. The books prepared by the project members report the empirical findings of the project and offer a penetrating analysis of the degree of social, economic, and political integration between Arabs and Jews, the extent of discrimination, and the degree to which rights and opportunities are shared by all.
The Health Care of the Arabs in Israel
Nira Reiss
A study of the development of modern medical health services in Palestine until 1948 and in Israel, this book focuses on the interaction of state policy, class relations, voluntary organizations, and professional practice as they affect the level of participation of Arabs in the emergent health system.
Nira Reiss is a lecturer in anthropology at the University of Haifa, Israel.
The Health Care of the Arabs in Israel
Nira Reiss
First published 1991 by Westview Press
Published 2019 by Routledge
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Copyright 1991 by the International Center for Peace in the Middle East
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Reiss, Nira.
The health care of the Arabs in Israel / by Nira Reiss.
p. cm.(Westview special studies on the Middle East)
ISBN 0-8133-7763-3
1. Palestinian ArabsMedical careIsrael. 2. Palestinian Arabs
IsraelSocial conditions. 3. Palestinian ArabsLegal status,
laws, etc.Israel. I. Title. II. Series.
[DNLM: 1. Delivery of Health CareIsrael. 2. Ethnic Groups
Israel. 3. Health ServicesIsrael. 4. Social WelfareIsrael.
W 84 J19 R3h]
RA396.I75R45 1991
362.1'0899274dc20
DNLM/DLC
for Library of Congress 89-70441
CIP
ISBN 13: 978-0-367-29278-2 (hbk)
This study examines the origins, development and distribution of Western health care in Palestine as of the mid-19th century and in Israel (within its 1967 borders) and describes the implications of successive political regimesOttoman rule, British Mandatory administration, and the State of Israelfor the Arab population living in these configurations. While the interaction between Islamic and European medical cultures has had a long history, the expansion of the western powers into the area in the 19th century brought with it new medical practices and European modes of institutional organization for health (cf. Ullman 1978, Worsiey 1982, Gran 1979).
The changing political and social situations of the Arabs in Palestine and in Israel have affected their fundamental conditions of health, including their participation in the emergent system of medical services. There has been no previous comprehensive study delineating the development of modern health care and the changing health needs of this population.
Beyond this descriptive goal, the aim of the analysis of conditions within the Israeli context is corrective. Indeed, the research was motivated by the assumption that inequalities in the provision of public services in Israel should be remedied. The primary goal of the research was then to provide an assessment of the health services available to the Arabs in Israel.
For a number of years after the establishment of the state an account which began and ended with the favorable comparison of health conditions of the Arabs in Israel with pre-state conditions had some force of truth. There has indeed been an improvement over the situation which existed before 1948; lags in the services were attributed to pre-state neglect of the Arab population and to a lack of a pre-existing basis. These constructions have worn off by now, since enough time has passed within a declaredly universalistic framework to make equal distribution of health resources the only valid criterion for public action.
Initially in this study the relative access of the Arab population of Israel to the public health system was therefore analyzed with regard to the infrastructure of water supply and sanitation, quality and quantity of public preventive and curative services, coverage by medical insurance, and local participation in health services. An attempt was made to assess the health status of this population with regard to life expectancies, infant mortality rates, and rates of adult illness and mortality. In extending the research toward an understanding of processes which have affected this population, my approach has been historical, with a Marxist emphasis on the relation between political power, social class, health services and health (Rosenfeld and Carmi 1976; Navarro 1976, 1978; Waitzkin 1983).
The research on which the study is based was conducted primarily from 1985 to 1987 and included interviews with persons active in the provision of health care and of related services in the present and past, observation of health facilities in various Arab and Jewish communities, and a review of published and unpublished materials. The sources reviewed included publications and unpublished surveys by the Israeli government and the public sick funds, as well as other health-related institutions; archival material in the State Archive and at the Israeli Ministry of Health; books and articles in academic journals; and M.D. theses in Israeli medical schools.
The spelling of place names in this book is consistent with that of official Israeli government publications, such as Central Bureau of Statistics 1985a. The map on page xv was made by the University of Haifa Computer Cartography Laboratory.
In I present the origins of modern health services In Palestine in the latter half of the 19th century, when the prevailing positivist European medical culture was brought into the area. I point out the differential distribution of this sectorially organized system of medical careintroduced primarily by Christian missions and Jewish voluntary organizationsto the various populations of Palestine: Arabs and Jews, Muslim and Christian Arabs, rural and urban residents.
