The project to construct a bunker facility for Ashkelon’s Barzilai Hospital has been on hold for about a year, perhaps longer, due to the fact that an ancient cemetery was found underground when the construction began.

Undoubtedly the Gaza Was has compelled rabbanim to expedite the decision-making process, with Chief Ashkenazi Rabbi Yona Metzger Shlita releasing a p’sak earlier in the week, permitting the transfer of the bones. On Wednesday, Chief Sephardi Rabbi Shlomo Amar Shlita put his signature to the decision after a telephone consult with members of the Rabbinate’s Council of Rabbanim, giving the green light from a religious perspective.

Since the start of the Gaza War tensions in Barzilai have been running high, with hospital officials questioning how respect for the dead can supersede respect for human life. As a result of the rocket strikes into Ashkelon, the hospital is on the front line and lacks proper fortified facilities despite being a major medical facility for the southern area.

Following the Chief Rabbinate’s ruling, MK Ofir Pines, who chairs the Knesset Interior Committee, called for immediate construction, explaining every day lost may lead to additional loss of life.

Rav Metzger on Thursday is scheduled to meet with the heads of the hospital to explain the details of the p’sak but for now, the administration remains pessimistic, explaining that until they have a document in hand permitting the construction, they simply do not believe it.

In response to the report, Minister of Religious Services (Shas) Yitzchak Cohen, whose office has held up the construction, explains that the rabbinical approval will only result in a fortified unit in two years at the earliest. Seeking to deflect the ongoing criticism against him from the hospital directorate, the minister questions why Barzilai failed to properly prepare itself for the war, not setting up a trauma unit and not fortifying certain areas including operating rooms when the government invested over NIS 1.5 billion in area fortification.

(Yechiel Spira – YWN Israel)