Al-Makassed Hospital is still suffering from a stifling financial, administrative and medical crisis that threatens its existence, despite the fact that it is one of the most important landmarks of the occupied city of Jerusalem. This comes in light of the approaching installation of a new administrative body for the Al-Makassed Charitable Society, which supervises Al-Makassed Hospital, at the beginning of next August, by the President of the Palestinian Authority.
It is no secret that the reason behind these successive crises is the deep and widespread corruption among some members of the current administrative body, some of whom are over seventy years old. Since 1997, no elections have been held for this body, which currently consists of 9 members out of 12, and the disappearance and decline of the General Assembly.
This, in turn, was reflected in the performance of successive administrative staff, which reinforced the hotbeds of financial, administrative and medical corruption, until the matter reached an advanced stage of ferocity and bullying, which affected doctors and employees without justification.
Mr. Ziad Hamouri, Director of the Jerusalem Center for Social and Economic Rights, spoke about the reasons for the deterioration in the hospital, explaining that “the crisis in Al-Makassed is chronic, the most important reason for which is the accumulated debts, which have reached approximately 300 million shekels, and the situation there is getting worse, and there is no hope of paying these debts, if the situation remains as it is, as the hospital needs a rescue body to address all administrative and financial aspects. For example, there is an increase in the hospital’s staff, as the number of employees exceeds the hospital’s needs by approximately 30 %.”
Regarding the most prominent corruption files plaguing Al-Maqasid Hospital, sources from within the hospital - who refused to reveal their identity - explained to us:

  • The properties endowed to Al-Maqasid Hospital, which are estimated at millions of dollars, and no one outside the circle of those executing the hospital has the authority to reveal their size or fate, and why they are not used to pay off part of the debts that the hospital suffers from.
  • Supplies, medical parts and purchases in general are carried out in an unprofessional manner, through fictitious companies with bids, prices and specifications that are not based on any regulatory reference.
  • Medical transfers transferred to the hospital by the Palestinian Authority, as they are less expensive than those transferred to any other hospital; these sources attributed the reason to agreements concluded by influential people in the hospital with the Palestinian Ministry of Health, without providing any convincing reasons, which we conclude that they come in a corrupt context, and despite this, millions of shekels are still pending and have not been paid by the Palestinian Ministry of Health.
  • The file of medical compensation cases in the hospital, approximately 20 million shekels are paid annually, as compensation for medical errors, which can be overcome through insurance companies, and by relying on medical teams with a low error rate.
    Regarding the possible solutions presented by the National Labor Authority, the Workers’ Union, the Al-Maqasid Rescue Committee, and other popular and national activities, to save this national and medical edifice from collapse, Professor Mazen Al-Jabri, a researcher at the Arab Studies Association, spoke:
    First, we must emphasize to everyone that the collapse of Al-Makassed Hospital means the collapse of the national institution in Jerusalem. This hospital is not only a place for treatment, but it is also a national symbol and address for us in the city.
    Secondly, we in Jerusalem, with its national, Islamic and popular activities, confirm to everyone that the corruption in this hospital has reached a level that cannot be ignored, and we are not in the process of personalizing the issue as much as we are in the process of treating the disaster.
    Professor Mazen Al-Jabri explained that the solutions available to us now are to pressure decision-makers in the city of Ramallah to appoint members of a temporary administrative body that is characterized by national, professional and ethical standards in consultation with Jerusalemite activists. Its tasks include stopping the deterioration that is taking place, referring the corrupt to the judiciary, and drafting a new internal law for the association that works to form a new general body that will elect an administrative body in the future that will return the hospital’s path and its mission to the right path.