New PHRI Report Examines Silencing of Palestinian Healthcare Workers in Israel
Physicians for Human Rights-Israel (PHRI) has released a new report titled “All This Coexistence”, examining the experiences of Palestinian citizens of Israel working within the country’s healthcare system and documenting what the organization describes as growing patterns of suppression, silencing, and discrimination since October 2023.
Based on nearly a year of research, interviews, and testimonies from healthcare professionals, the report challenges the widely promoted image of the Israeli healthcare system as a neutral space of coexistence and equality. Instead, it presents accounts from Palestinian healthcare workers who describe increasing pressure, fear, and restrictions surrounding speech, identity, and political expression within hospitals and clinics.
The report documents dozens of disciplinary hearings and clarification meetings conducted across at least 15 hospitals and all four Israeli health maintenance organizations. According to the findings, healthcare workers were questioned or disciplined for actions such as sharing social media posts, liking content online, changing profile pictures, or expressing opinions related to the war in Gaza.
Testimonies included in the report describe physicians, nurses, and other medical staff being pressured to explain or retract their views, with some facing formal sanctions. Others reported broader workplace environments shaped by fear and surveillance, including pressure to avoid speaking Arabic in professional settings and what the report characterizes as informal “loyalty tests.”
One physician quoted in the report described a sense of emotional detachment and exhaustion within the workplace atmosphere:
“It’s difficult for us, but we cannot speak… We have become a machine. Without emotion. We just work, tick boxes, receive a salary… I asked myself—what am I doing here? I’m not doing my job… That’s why I had to stop.”
The report argues that these experiences cannot be separated from wider political and social dynamics inside Israel, including rising nationalism, militarization, and structural inequality. According to PHRI, the healthcare system reflects many of the same societal tensions visible elsewhere in public life.
Researchers also point to a growing contradiction between the public image of healthcare institutions as spaces of partnership and coexistence, and the lived experiences described by many Palestinian staff members working within them.
Alongside documenting individual cases, the report calls for institutional and policy changes aimed at protecting freedom of expression, ensuring workplace equality, and creating safer professional environments for Palestinian healthcare workers. Its broader message emphasizes the need to acknowledge existing inequalities rather than suppress discussion around them.
The publication contributes to ongoing conversations surrounding civil liberties, labor rights, healthcare ethics, and the impact of the Gaza war on social relations within Israeli institutions.
Read the full report here:
https://www.phr.org.il/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/6579_PalestinianHelathcareWorkers_Paper_Eng.pdf