“I’m Adel Iktelat, I live in Daburiyya and I’m the Nazareth Director of Nursing in the Clalit HMO’s Northern District and the Director of the Repeated Hospitalization System for the Northern district.
Daburiyya is a 10,000-person village populated by some of the highest rates of nurses and doctors per capita in the Arab society. I live here next door to the house I grew up in, where my parents live – my mother, may she live a long life, and my father, who sadly passed away during COVID-19. He died on March 13, at the peak of the COVID-19 crisis.
My father’s funeral was on Saturday, and I was on the phone the whole time. I barely even went to the mourning house. Finally, my older brother turned to me and said, ‘Listen – go. No one’s angry. Go out and do your work. They need you and we understand.’ The very next day, I was already in the office. I told everyone that if I had managed to come from my house to deal with the situation, everyone had to buy in. This was our moment of truth.
Then came a wave of morbidity in the area’s villages: Daburiyya, Kafr Kanna and more. An outbreak took place in a nearby nursing home called Yavniel. It started with one, two, three, four, five people, and then we discovered that almost house had someone who had been in contact with a confirmed patient or who was sick him or herself. It was then when Daburiyya began making the headlines.
Daburiyya’s mayor was smart; he knew who to contact. He picked up the phone and called everyone who works at Clalit and told them that he needed help. And he didn’t ask – he demanded. Daburiyya is not typically part of a zone I’m responsible for, but since I live here, I asked to focus my efforts here.
At the peak of the crisis, we set up a testing tent and began operating it. We set up three testing cycles in Daburiyya, and Clalit conducted around 700 tests. It was a true local collaboration – everyone put in a joint effort.
I don’t typically deal with Magen David Adom or the IDF Home Front Command on a daily basis. We only see each other when we run some sort of exercise or when the Ministry of Health conducts reviews – not the happiest of occasions. But suddenly, everyone became a partner around the same table. There were tons of opinions, many different customs and various political identities, but at the end of the day, we all wanted to help everyone. This type of collaboration is ultimately what will help curb the disease.
I think COVID-19 is the only situation where the State of Israel has truly been threatened and Arabs and Jews have stood side by side; Jews have trusted Arabs and we have worked together. We’re all behind masks. The hazmat suits we all wear have proven that our appearances have no real meaning. Our content and humanity have stood out more than anything. It doesn’t matter where you came from. That’s thanks to COVID-19. That’s the beautiful side of the coronavirus.”