WEST BANK (Dispatches) – A top medical official with the Zionist regime has expressed fear of the “Arab womb” and suggested fines on Palestinian mothers giving birth to five children to limit the Palestinian fertility rate in the occupied territories.
Gideon Sahar, director of the Department of Thoracic and Heart Surgery at Soroka Hospital in Beersheba, was speaking at a meeting of the far-right so-called Jewish Home party where he directed a question to Interior Minister Ayelet Shaked about the “most problematic population”, referring to Palestinian citizens of the occupied territories.
“Regarding the matter of population growth and the more problematic population, we face a kind of paradox,” Sahar explained.
“On the one hand, we understand that the birthrate is decisive - the Arab womb; and on the other hand, we encourage it with all the child allowances.
“That’s why I think we should consider a child allowance that is regressive: the first child receives one, the second child receives one, perhaps the third child; the fourth child does not, and the fifth child perhaps triggers a fine. We have to figure out something,” he added.
In response, Shaked said the suggestion was “impractical” and said the best solution is to push Palestinians to “simply undergo Westernisation”.
Sahar’s comments have caused an uproar among Palestinians, who are the descendants of those expelled from their homes in the Nakba.
Palestinian medical workers called his remarks “racist” and demanded his dismissal.
The Association of Arab Doctors of the Negev filed a petition signed by more than 150 doctors calling for disciplinary action against the doctor.
“Anyone who sees the Arab womb as a threat has no place in the health system, and certainly cannot care for the hearts of the Arabs,” read the petition.
The petition stated that following his comments there was no way to be confident in Sahar treating Palestinian patients with the same care as Jewish patients.
“We expect the hospital management to take a strong stance against statements of this kind, from which emerges a spirit of general racial arrogance against an entire population.”