To Be a Doctor in Jerusalem: Life under Threat of Terrorism

In 1948, when the state of Israel was established, Jerusalem was divided between Israel and Jordan, not through any deep reflective process, but merely because of the positions of the opposing armies at the time. Consequently, Mount Scopus, the location of the Hebrew University campus, established on 1 April 1925, and Hadassah University hospital, became an Israeli enclave in the midst of an Arab population. But a university and a hospital could not function under these conditions. Consequently, they were moved to the western part of the city. Since 1967, however, Israel assumed control of East Jerusalem, and the hospital on Mount Scopus was reopened. The Hebrew University returned to the mountain as well. Still, the surrounding population remained mostly Arab. Today, a hospital in which 90% of the staff is Jewish serves a mostly Arab community.

This article reflects our daily experience as doctors in Hadassah Mount Scopus Hospital. We are 2 residents, one Jewish, one Arab, working together in the internal medicine ward.

More than 2 and a half years of terrorism have claimed many victims. Among our hospital staff, an attending physician was murdered on his way home. A pregnant nurse in her ninth month from our ward was ambushed and shot 5 minutes from her home. Her father was killed, and she was severely wounded. An emergency department nurse triaged her own son, who was wounded in one of the terror attacks on the Ben-Yehuda pedestrian mall. Another nurse lost her daughter to terrorists, and the secretary for the hospital's chief executive officer lost her brother, who was murdered along with his fiancée. Familiarity with so many victims lies as a dark shadow over the hospital.

Our Arab patients have their own share of suffering. Some have had their loved ones injured and their homes demolished. …