Last week, four Israeli soldiers were seriously wounded in an explosion in southern Lebanon and evacuated to a hospital in northern Israel. Soon afterward, allegations began circulating on social media about what happened to them in the intensive care unit. A family member claimed the soldiers had been treated poorly during a night shift and that their families had been made to leave the unit. Much of the public discussion focused on one detail: the night-shift staff were described as Arab.

The hospital has rejected the allegations. Israel’s defense minister has ordered the matter investigated. I was not there, and neither were most of the people now certain of what happened.

But the story has stayed with me, because it touches three things I care about: what happens when hatred enters a place of healing, what role families should have in intensive care, and how easy it is right now to take one painful event and turn it into a story about an entire group of people.

First, we should not be naive. Hatred can enter a hospital.

This week, Israeli content creator Max Veifer announced he is traveling to Australia to testify in the criminal trial of two former nurses at Sydney’s Bankstown Hospital. The case followed a viral video in which the two spoke about Israelis with chilling hostility. They said they would refuse to treat Israeli patients, and made statements about killing them.

There are few places more sacred than a room where one person is fighting to save another’s life. Hatred based on nationality, religion or ethnicity has no place........

© The Times of Israel (Blogs)