Jerusalem, April 28: Thousands of Israeli doctors and medical students have staged the largest protest so far in front of the Knesset in their fight for higher wages and better health care, reports say.
Around 3,000 doctors went on a strike on Wednesday and descended on al-Quds’ (Jerusalem) Rose Garden, opposite the Knesset, as Israel Medical Association and the Finance Ministry were holding talks.
Negotiations on Tuesday ended without an agreement as doctors rejected a 20 percent pay raise, saying it is just one percent higher than a previously rejected offer, Ynetnews reported.
“We are talking about human lives here, about the lives of infants, women, senior citizens, and the ailing. We are talking about the crisis of interns in hospitals. The Israeli public is not receiving good health care, it is not receiving health care at all,” the head of the Clalit doctors’ union, Israel Elayag, said.
Opposition chairwoman Tzipi Livni, addressing the protesting doctors, accused the government of failing to support the old and sick. In a direct reference to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu she said that he should “roll up his sleeves and engage in negotiations.”
“I’ve visited hospitals in the past few months. I’ve seen children sleeping in the hallways and red-eyed doctors rushing from one to the other,” she added.
A new round of talks between Israel Medical Association and the Finance Ministry is scheduled for Thursday, after which the association will decide whether to continue their strike.
The strike is taking its toll on hospitals where non-urgent surgeries have been delayed and many doctors are absent from their shifts.
Israeli doctors, who last staged a strike in 2000, have been negotiating with Tel Aviv for better work conditions for more than eight months, the report said.
——-Agencies