Nadene Goldfoot
Barzilai Medical Center (Hebrew: מרכז רפואי ברזילי, Merkaz Refu'i Barzilai; Arabic: مركز برزيلاي الطبي) is a 600-bed district general hospital in Ashkelon, Israel opened in 1961. The hospital serves a population of 500,000, including a large number of Ethiopian and Russian immigrants, and has more than 100,000 admissions annually. Moshe Dayan was the Israeli general going into Ashkelon in 1950. Situated six miles from Gaza, the hospital has been the target of numerous Qassam and Grad rocket attacks, sometimes as many as 140 in one weekend. The hospital plays a vital role in treating wounded soldiers and terror victims.
Plans to build a new rocket and missile-proof emergency room for the hospital in 2010 were hampered by ultra-orthodox protests sparked by the discovery of human remains in an ancient burial ground unearthed during construction activities. The hospital's new fortified emergency room was dedicated on February 20, 2018.
Since the beginning of the 2023 Israel-Hamas war, Barzilai Medical Center has endured three direct rocket hits. Despite its vulnerable location, the hospital is only partially protected, resulting in a current occupancy rate of just 30%, far below its capacity and need. An underground protected area was built, accommodating 285 beds, but the hospital still struggles with challenges like caring for premature infants and conducting dialysis treatments under these circumstances.
On October 8 2023, the second day of the conflict, hospital administration decided to relocate all patients from the women's and high-risk pregnancy departments to a protected underground area. This decision proved crucial, as shortly afterward, a rocket struck close to the evacuated departments. The hospital director, Prof. Hazi Levi, emphasized the importance of this preemptive action, especially given the severity of damage evident in the aftermath of the rocket strikes.
Ashkelon's inhabitants had been exclusively Muslims and Christians and the area had been allocated to the Arab state in the United Nations Partition Plan for Palestine. On the eve of the 1948 Arab–Israeli War the inhabitants numbered 10,000 and in October 1948, the city accommodated thousands more Palestinian refugees from nearby villages. One thing to remember is that Muslim Arabs allow at least 4 wives who have many children. Their population can quadrupal compared to Jews and Christians who usually have one wife at a time bearing children.
The town was conquered by Israeli forces on 5 November 1948, by which time much of the Arab population had fled, leaving some 2,700 inhabitants, of which 500 were deported by Israeli soldiers in December 1948 and most of the rest were deported by 1950. Today, the city's population is almost entirely Jewish.
Resolution 181, passed by the UN General Assembly (UNGA) on November 29, 1947, suggested the creation of two states, one Jewish and one Arab.
The plan to partition Palestine would have established the Jewish state on an area of approximately 14,100 square kilometers, or 56.47 percent of the total land, to be inhabited by five hundred thousand Jews, four hundred thousand Arab-Palestinians, and ninety-two thousand Bedouins (in the Negev desert).
This means that the Jewish state was expected to host an almost equal number of Jews and belligerent Arab-Palestinians. This was an impossible dream.
At the time, in the area between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea, Jews accounted for about 30 percent of the total population, and owned approximately 6.7 percent of the land. (“Land ownership” was not common in the region: in 1951 In Iraq, for instance, only 0.3 percent of the registered land was owned as “private property”). Owned land was a rare occurrence in the Middle East. At the time was a time when the Ottoman Empire had lost the First World War, and the Allies were dividing up the land. It was a time when the Jews had spoken up, wanting back their native land that the Romans had taken from them in 70 CE. According to historical records, the primary source of funding for Zionists to purchase land in Palestine was the Rothschild family, a prominent Jewish banking dynasty who invested heavily in buying land in the region, particularly through the Jewish Colonization Association, starting in the late 19th century; with Baron Edmond de Rothschild being a key figure in these land acquisitions. He was a French member of the Rothschild banking family. A strong supporter of Zionism, his large donations lent significant support to the movement during its early years, which helped lead to the establishment of the State of Israel—where he is simply known as "The Baron Rothschild",
Jews had roamed for about 2,000 years without belonging to their own country, and this was at a time of much anti-Semitism being they had refused to comply with Christians and become part of their religion by conversion.
Chaim Weizmann
Britain held a 30 year mandate to be over Palestine. The Balfour Doctrine of Lord Balfour led all to believe that the English actually were for the establishment of a Jewish Homeland, which Jews needed badly. As it was, England wanted oil more than they realized; and gave 80% of the promised land to a Prince Abdullah of Saudi Arabia for benefitting oil rights. Note that a Jew,
We had the League of Nations' okay; had bought land from Palestinians who could not afford the land taxes and paid the extreme high prices because it was holy land to Jews though by then consisted of swamps, weeds and mosquitoes and sand, and even had the United Nations blessing via Harry Truman of USA. We've lost 80% land to Abdullah and at least half of the remaining 20% to the West Bank (Judea and Samaria) leaving about 10% of the Promised Land, but it was to become Israel, small as it was. Jews have been returning to the land ever since, as prophesized in the Bible. Yet these glorious creations, the League of Nations and the updated United Nations, have done nothing but condemn Israel, setting the standard for all the world's people to follow. Will a Judgement Day follow? Who will get a passing grade and who will fail? Don't we all have this within us to judge right over wrong? Ashkelon, standard of Israel, doing good for all but shot at constantly: A significant number of attacks on healthcare facilities occurred during the Israel–Hamas war. During the first week of the war, there were 94 attacks on health care facilities in Israel and Gaza, killing 29 healthcare workers and injuring 24.
Resource;
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ashkelon
https://www.thecairoreview.com/essays/framing-the-partition-plan-for-palestine/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barzilai_Medical_Center
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attacks_on_health_facilities_during_the_Israel%E2%80%93Hamas_war
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edmond_James_de_Rothschild
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chaim_Weizmann
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Chaim-Weizmann
https://history.howstuffworks.com/historical-events/spain-forced-jews-flee-convert-christianity.htm
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