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A group calling itself the ‘Vaad for the Children Stricken with the Machla’ has published pashkavilim against Health Minister Yaakov Litzman, pashkavilim distributed in Yerushalayim.

The notices question why Litzman cannot admit the error or his ways, the appointment of Prof. Ze’ev Rothstein as director of Hadassah Hospital. The notices add this, Litzman’s ego, is at the crux of the machlokes, asking “What will you say on the Yom HaDin?”

The pashkavilim blame Litzman and his ego for the ongoing dispute surrounding the pediatric hematology-oncology unit of Hadassah Ein Kerem Hospital. The doctors running the unit have quit, explaining to the parents of the patients and the tzibur at large that the merger of the pediatric unit with the adult hematology-oncology unit will be at the expense of the welfare of the children.

Litzman blames the doctors, calling on them to return to Hadassah immediately. In the interim, Shaare Zedek Medical Center is willing to open a pediatric hematology-oncology unit, but Litzman has announced he will not permit it. Without ministry approval, Shaare Zedek cannot and will not open the unit. Litzman is accused of trying to manipulate events to compel the doctors to return to Hadassah Ein Kerem.

Parents of the children are siding with the doctors, whom they trust and credit with treating their children with mesirus nefesh. They launched a protest tent near the Knesset Rose Garden and last week and announced a hunger strike. They petitioned the High Court of Justice, which heard the case this week. The court ordered arbitration between the sides, which is being headed by retired justice Elyakim Rubinstein.

In a good-will gesture, the parents on Thursday 5 Tammuz announced they are stopping their hunger strike in the hope of moving ahead with arbitration.

(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)