Israel | Mind, Body & Spirit

P.A. health minister makes landmark visit to Hadassah hospital

Palestinian Authority Minister of Health Dr. Hani Abdeen visits 8-year-old Sarah Ghanem, from the village of Durah near Hebron, while she is treated at Hadassah Hospital’s pediatric oncology-hematology department in Jerusalem on Sunday, May 5. (Courtesy Hadassah)
Palestinian Authority Minister of Health Dr. Hani Abdeen visits 8-year-old Sarah Ghanem, from the village of Durah near Hebron, while she is treated at Hadassah Hospital’s pediatric oncology-hematology department in Jerusalem on Sunday, May 5. (Courtesy Hadassah)

Palestinian Authority Minister of Health Dr. Hani Abdeen visited Hadassah Hospital in Jerusalem on May 5. The hospital said Abdeen was the first P.A. health minister to visit the facility.

Abdeen, accompanied by other senior officials from the Palestinian Authority, met some of the dozens of Palestinian physicians who are doing their residency training there.

Abdeen met with the hospital’s acting director-general and director of Hadassah-Ein Kerem, Dr. Yuval Weiss, in the pediatric hematology-oncology department, where 30 percent of the patients are Palestinian.

“Hadassah considers cooperation with our Palestinian neighbors a top priority,” Weiss said. “Medicine is a bridge to peace. There are no borders when it comes to treating patients.”

Abdeen said the delegation was there to get feedback from patients and “to find ways to further collaborate.”