For The New Yorker, Puffin Foundation fellow Eyal Press profiles Lina Qasem Hassan, a Palestinian doctor who treats both Israeli and Palestinian patients. After Hamas’ attack on Israel on October 7th, Qasem Hassan traveled to a resort in the Dead Sea area and treated Israeli victims at a clinic set up on a hotel’s grounds. Since then, her public condemnations of the Israeli government’s attacks against Gaza have imperiled her job.
Press joined Lina Qasem Hassan at her job at a clinic in Kiryat Bialik, outside of Haifa, and shadowed her as she went on home visits to some of her elderly patients, including a couple who had survived the Holocaust and the wife of a man whose village had been razed during the Nakba. Press writes:
Since October 7th, a source of comfort to Qasem Hassan has been the devotion of patients she’d feared would abandon her—people like Ellen and Shlomo, who live in Kiryat Bialik. Ellen, aged eighty-two, is originally from Philadelphia, and is the daughter of a passionate Zionist. Shlomo is a Sabra—an Israeli native—who grew up in Tel Aviv. They both told me that they adored Qasem Hassan. After Qasem Hassan discovered that Ellen had an atrioventricular block, she helped her get a pacemaker before the specialist who could perform the surgery left for the weekend. “I know she saved my life,” Ellen said. She and Shlomo were aware of Qasem Hassan’s political beliefs, which Qasem Hassan told me she didn’t conceal from her patients. (“I can’t hide who I am.”) Shlomo said to me, “We know she’s active.” It had never affected the quality of the care they received. “She doesn’t look at your color or your views,” Ellen said. “She just cares about you as a person.”