The Times ran an excellent article yesterday, detailing how Israeli hospitals take in some of those wounded in the Syrian conflict, despite the fact that the two countries are technically at war. But what’s chilling is the extent to which Israel needs to protect the identities of those it treats, lest they eventually suffer recriminations for having been treated in an Israeli hospital. The article notes:
The identity of the patients is closely guarded so they will not be in danger when they return to Syria. Soldiers sit outside the wards where the adults are to protect them from possible threats and prying journalists. But doctors granted access to the children in the closed intensive care wing, on the condition that no details that could compromise their safety were published….Asked what she will say when she goes back home, the aunt replied: “I won’t say that I was in Israel. It is forbidden to be here, and I am afraid of the reactions.”
So, to be clear: the civilians who have been injured either by their own government, or by the forces purportedly representing them, are afraid to say that they were treated in Israel, lest they suffer yet again for the malfeasance of being wounded.
