Israel’s politics pivot to shared good health

Yoav Segalovitz, a Zionist politician from a centrist Jewish party, shook up Israeli politics on Monday. He announced he would run in the Oct. 27 parliamentary elections as a top-tier candidate with Ra’am, a party representing Israel’s large Arab population.His surprise leap across a deep social divide could help Ra’am win enough seats in the Knesset to influence who becomes the next prime minister, possibly shifting Israel’s role in the Middle East. A recent poll showed that more than half of voters who oppose the current government would support including Ra’am with Mr. Segalovitz in a possible coalition.While such political leverage remains to be seen, it was Mr. Segalovitz’s reasons for joining Ra’am – an abbreviation for United Arab List – that also caught much of the public’s attention.The former police commander, who is widely admired for reducing crimes against Israeli Arabs, said he wants to challenge the assertion that a Jewish-Arab partnership is impossible after the Oct. 7, 2023, massacre by Hamas.“I explicitly want to break the paradigm of the dividing lines and the lines of discourse,” he said.Even more extraordinary was a vision he invoked that would lift Israeli identity above race, religion, and ethnicity to a transcending interest in healing, particularly within a community of healthcare workers.The future model for Israel, he said, is “familiar to anyone who enters the doors of an Israeli hospital.“There, a person sheds the narratives and identities they carry. There, first and foremost, human beings meet.“Patients, doctors, nurses, administrative staff, families – everyone is equal. That is the place where we are all human beings, and that is where we will begin.”He also noted that more than 34 members of the Arab community were killed in the Oct. 7 attack. In addition, many Israelis have taken pride in their country’s assistance to ill or wounded Palestinians during Israel’s war against Hamas by evacuating them for treatment outside Gaza.In many countries that are in either war or political strife, a shared focus on collaborative care and healing often provides a neutral, civic space that can bridge differences and create feelings of belonging. That has been true in places from Northern Ireland to South Sudan. In Jerusalem, the Hadassah hospitals provide an experience of equal dignity and an opportunity for reconciliation and security between Jews and Palestinians.It is in those institutions of healing that Mr. Segalovitz finds a model for Israel.“There is a shared future. That shared future exists in every area of life,” he said. And one starting point can be the universal compassion for the health of other people, which might serve as an anchor for harmony among Israelis.