Rattling the world’s major economies and paralyzing entire healthcare systems, the COVID-19 outbreak continues to spread globally and has shown no signs of slowing down.
While it hits indiscriminately, the Arab minority in Israel is especially vulnerable to the Coronavirus. Already under equipped, underfunded, and understaffed to deal with normal medical emergencies, a serious COVID-19 outbreak within the Palestinian Arab community could easily overwhelm and collapse the healthcare system in it.
Although the Mossawa Center and the Joint List carried out, along with other organizations and activists, an intense advocacy campaign to mitigate the spread of the virus in the community has been successful, the fight against the Coronavirus is still marred with discrimination and politics.
We, at the Mossawa Center, invite you to take a closer look into the two-fold challenge facing the Arab minority in Israel: the COVID-19 crisis and the ramifications of recent political developments in Israel and the community.
Moderated by Mossawa Center Executive Director Suha Salman Mousa, our panelists, Knesset Member Dr. Yousef Jabareen of the Joint List and head of the Joint List’s International Relations Committee, and Prof. Fahed Hakim, M.D., Head of Nazareth Hospital EMMS discuss the situation on the ground from both a medical and political perspective, explaining both the impact of the virus on the Palestinian Arab community, as well as the impact of recent political developments.