Rahm Emanuel-backed program to train Palestinian doctors at Israeli hospital sparks backlash

Israeli lawmaker blasts use of Tel Aviv hospital to train Palestinian health care workers after former Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel donates to the program.

By World Israel News Staff

A $550,000 donation from Rahm Emanuel and his brothers to train Palestinian doctors and nurses at a leading Israeli hospital has drawn opposition from Israeli lawmakers, reviving a broader dispute over whether Israel’s medical system should be used to train health care professionals from Palestinian institutions.

Emanuel, the former Chicago mayor, White House chief of staff and US ambassador to Japan, announced Monday that he and his brothers, physician and bioethicist Ezekiel Emanuel and entertainment executive Ari Emanuel, are funding a program that will bring medical personnel from An-Najah National University Hospital in Nablus to Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center, commonly known as Ichilov.

The program, organized through the nonprofit Rozana Health Diplomacy, will provide clinical training, fellowships and leadership development for 11 Palestinian pediatric doctors and 36 pediatric nurses.

The training will take place through Ichilov’s Dana-Dwek Children’s Hospital and is intended to help staff a new pediatric hospital planned by An-Najah in Samaria.

Emanuel has promoted the initiative as an example of what he calls “health care diplomacy,” arguing that cooperation between Israeli and Palestinian medical professionals can improve treatment while creating relationships across the conflict.

“Kids and families get great care, and doctors and nurses train together, learning from each other,” Emanuel told Politico, adding that he hoped the program would help build lasting trust.

The donation followed Emanuel’s visit to Ichilov in July, where he met Israeli and Palestinian medical officials and observed the existing partnership between the hospital, Rozana and An-Najah.

“One of the most inspiring examples of coexistence I saw in Israel” was the medical partnership, Emanuel wrote after the visit.

Kenneth Bob, chairman of Rozana USA, said Emanuel’s visit directly led to the gift.

“He was so impressed by what he saw,” Bob said, adding that the initiative fit Emanuel’s broader worldview. The $550,000 contribution, made in honor of the Emanuel brothers’ parents, Dr. Benjamin and Marsha Emanuel, is the largest private donation Rozana has received.

The money is intended not merely to finance temporary exchanges but to build specialized pediatric capabilities that An-Najah currently lacks. The program will include training for respiratory technicians, a specialty the Palestinian hospital says is not presently available locally.

Dr. Iyad Maqbool, CEO of An-Najah National University Hospital, said specialized instruction of the hospital’s staff would be “a key part of making this new hospital successful.”

The announcement, however, quickly prompted opposition in Israel.

Otzma Yehudit MK Limor Son Har-Melech, who chairs the Knesset Health Committee, said she would seek to stop the program and had contacted Health Minister Haim Katz and Ichilov’s leadership demanding that it be canceled.

“The Israeli health system is intended first and foremost for Israeli citizens,” Son Har-Melech said. “I will not allow its resources to be used to build the enemy’s health care system.”

It is unclear whether Son Har-Melech, as Health Committee chair, has the legal authority to prevent a privately funded training arrangement between Ichilov, Rozana and An-Najah.

Her intervention nevertheless places the program in the middle of an existing political fight over Palestinian medical professionals training in Israeli hospitals.

At a Knesset Health Committee hearing earlier this year, Son Har-Melech sharply criticized the growing number of graduates from An-Najah and Al-Quds University who were completing medical residencies in Israeli hospitals.

Health Ministry figures presented at the hearing showed that the number of medical residents who graduated from the two Palestinian universities had increased from roughly 70 in 2024 to 122, a rise of approximately 74%.

Son Har-Melech characterized the universities as institutions where anti-Israel incitement flourished and said graduates from them should not be placed in positions treating Israelis.

Likud MK Moshe Saada made a similar argument at the hearing, objecting that “physicians from the Palestinian Authority are doing their residencies in our hospitals” while Israel remains at war.

An-Najah itself has long been politically contentious in Israel.

The university has an active Hamas-affiliated Islamic Bloc, and Israeli security forces have previously arrested students accused of operating on behalf of Hamas.

In 2021, the IDF and Shin Bet announced the arrest of 11 An-Najah students suspected of transferring money, organizing pro-Hamas demonstrations and carrying out propaganda activity under the direction of Hamas officials.

During the same July trip in which he visited the Ichilov-An-Najah partnership, Emanuel delivered a major speech at Tel Aviv University sharply criticizing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government.

He claimed that Israeli policies were turning the country into a “territorial pariah” and argued for major changes in the US-Israel relationship, including eventually ending US defense subsidies and sanctioning Israelis involved in violence against Palestinians.

Ichilov HospitalLimor Son Har-MelechRahm Emanuel