'Israeli apartheid' in action: 4-year old Syrian girl has heart surgery in Israel

Here's an example of 'Israeli apartheid' in action. A 4-year old girl from war-torn Syria and her 9-months pregnant mother have just spent a month in Israel so that the girl could have heart surgery at Wolfson Hospital in Holon, Israel.

“I was afraid at the beginning,” Raha told me. “I was afraid because I was the first Syrian to come here. But I went into the hospital, and saw Arabs and all sorts of people, and I felt safe.”

The doctors were the first Jews she had ever seen. She expected hostility from the Israelis because she was Syrian, but was pleasantly surprised at the welcome she received. “Everyone there treated me well, especially the doctors,” she said.

Shevet Achim staff coordinated a trip for her to pray at the Al Aqsa mosque on the Temple Mount, and she relished taking in Jerusalem. “It’s nice to see how everyone lives together,” she said. They also took her and Nadrah to the beach in Jaffa, the first time they had ever seen the sea.

During the ride, Raha deflected questions about the civil war, or anything that even indirectly touched on politics.

“I am always thinking of my daughter, I just want her to get better,” she said emphatically. “That’s all I’m thinking about.”

Nadrah underwent her heart surgery on May 8, Raha told me. The operation went smoothly, but she had to stay in the hospital for 10 days.

One day while Nadrah was recuperating, Raha took her daughter for a stroll down the hall. They didn’t walk long, as Nadrah was still weak from her operation. They reached their room and walked through the door.

A man she had never seen before was waiting by Nadrah’s bed. Raha noticed the pistol on his hip.

He began speaking in flawless Syrian Arabic. “I am Abu Salim,” he said, “and I heard you were here. You don’t know me.”

Raha was in shock.

How did Assad’s intelligence services track us to the hospital?

...

Meir Hazan, or Abu Salim as he’s known in Arabic, escaped Damascus at the age of 17. He still speaks to his family in the Damascene Arabic tongue of his youth. He was sitting reading Yedioth Ahronoth at his Bat Yam home, as he does every morning, when he came across a story about Raha and Nadrah. He decided immediately to go see them.

Read the whole thing. Tell it to the BDS'ers. And call Jodi Rudoren at the New York Times and ask her why neither she nor any other member of the international media has written about this story.