Israeli hospitals admit segregating Palestinian from Israeli mothers in maternity wards

Jerusalem (QNN) – Three major Israeli hospitals have admitted for the first time that they have practiced segregation of Palestinian mothers from Israeli ones in maternity wards.
Israeli daily Haaretz said in a report on Thursday that the hospitals admitted to have practiced segregation in February during a lawsuit filed in front of Israel’s District Court by four Palestinian mothers.
Hadassah University Hospital in occupied Jerusalem, Haemek Hospital in Afula and Soroka Medical Center in Beersheba in “Israel”, have admitted that they practiced the segregation policy “on request” from Jewish mothers.
Another hospital, Galilee Medical Center in the city of Nahariya, also included in the lawsuit, denied they had such a policy.
The four Palestinian mothers originally filed their lawsuit last year, and demanded a compensation of $5,500 for being segregated from a room of Jewish mothers during their stay to give birth.
They had attended the hospital, and had recordings of conversations and arguments with nurses supporting the segregation, who moved them to another room.
One of the nurses was heard saying that “we are really trying to segregate, if there is pressure and no place, we do mix the women [Palestinian and Jewish], but try to separate them the next day.”