A Palestinian nurse living in northern Israel has described how she was denied entry to a bomb shelter near the clinic where she works as people took cover, fearing an Iranian rocket attack.
The woman, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of concerns for her own security if she is identified, told Middle East Eye she was driving between house visits to patients in the Krayot neighbourhood north of Haifa on Friday morning when air raid sirens started sounding.
She said she believed those who refused her entry to the shelter recognised her and knew that she worked at the local clinic – but turned her away anyway. She was wearing her medical uniform at the time.
“When the alert sounded I stopped my car. I saw other Israelis running in the direction of the shelter so I did as well,” she said.
“But when I came to enter they said, ‘No, you are an Arab’, and they closed the door.”
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She said discrimination against Palestinian medical workers in Israel had worsened since the 7 October attacks and the war in Gaza, but that she was still shocked by how she had been treated.
“I am providing medical service for this community and working in their town. They know who I am. They are my patients and I know all of them,” she said.
‘When I came to enter they said, ‘No, you are an Arab’, and they closed the door’
– Palestinian nurse in Krayot
After being denied entry, she instead took shelter in an open space, standing under a balcony.
“I saw an Israeli Russian woman lying on the floor. I helped her to stand up and I calmed her. I am human before I am Arab or Muslim or Jewish and I won’t lose my humanity,” she said.
The episode is the latest case of Palestinian citizens of Israel being denied entry to bomb shelters during days of Iranian air strikes launched in response to Israel’s attack on Iran.
Earlier this week, MEE reported on Palestinians who were prevented from using a bomb shelter in the mixed city of Jaffa where they had previously been allowed to gather.
On Thursday morning, a group of Palestinian workers in Ramat Gan were prevented from entering a shelter even after Iranian rockets had hit buildings in the central Israeli town.
In footage of the incident recorded by the workers, who are from Daliyat al-Karmel in northern Israel, one of them said they had been denied entry by a man who had told them, “Let your boss take care of you”.
“Let my boss take care of me? That’s not right,” the worker complains.
Racist abuse
In a separate incident in the town, another Palestinian worker told Channel 13 that he had been subjected to racist abuse even after helping to evacuate a pregnant woman from a building that had been damaged.
“I lifted the pregnant woman on my back,” he said.
“When I came out, a group of Israelis were chanting ‘Arab, Arab, Arab’. I took her all the way from the upper floor on my back, and this is the thank you I receive.”
Palestinians in Jaffa denied access to bomb shelter by Israeli neighbours
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Ahmad Tibi, a member of the Israeli Knesset for the Palestinian Taal party, told MEE: “This racist discrimination has become a widespread phenomenon in Israeli society under a fascist government and a Kahanist Knesset. Israeli society is sick with racism.
“We asked some of those who experienced racism to file a complaint. We will raise this in the Knesset.”
On Thursday, Ofer Cassif, an Israeli Knesset member for the left-wing Hadash party, wrote to the Israeli military to call for a hotline to be set up for cases of denial of access to shelters to be reported.
Cassif wrote on social media: “This is an unacceptable, illegal, dangerous and racist phenomenon that mainly affects Arabs, foreigners and disadvantaged groups who already suffer from gaps in access and protection.
“This racism must stop immediately and the violators must be brought to justice.”
Palestinian citizens of Israel make up about 20 percent of Israel’s population.
But Palestinian neighbourhoods have largely been ignored as Israel has built an expansive network of public bomb shelters and introduced legislation requiring safe rooms and shelters to be built in new buildings.
