Did you know? A small Israeli-Arab village in the Lower Galilee has one of the highest numbers of doctors per capita in the world!
The small Israeli village where everyone’s a doctor!
Israeli-Arab community of Arraba in the lower Galilee has more than six doctors per thousand inhabitants - one of the highest numbers of doctors per capita in the world.
The village of Arraba, to the north of Nazareth, may look like just another quiet community in the Lower Galilee. But take a closer look at the 24,000 residents and you’ll notice a lot of them preface their names with the title “Dr.”
Arraba (also transliterated as Arrabeh) boasts one of the highest numbers of doctors per capita in the world. The Israeli Arab community has more than six doctors per thousand inhabitants, according to a 2015 report by community activist Makbula Nassar, a journalist and presenter of current affairs programs.
By comparison, Israel as a whole has 3.4 physicians per 1,000 residents and the OECD average is 3.3 doctors per 1,000 people.
But Nassar tells ISRAEL21c that what’s even more astonishing about this village is the number of new medical graduates it produces every year.
Israel has about five medical graduates per 100,000 people, according to a 2013 OECD report.
The average was 11.5 new medical graduates per 100,000 across OECD countries, according to the same report. This proportion was highest in Ireland – with 20.3 medical graduates per 100,000 people — whereas Israel (5:100,000) and Japan (6:100,000) had the lowest number of new medical graduates relative to their population.
“Arraba produces between 25 and 30 new doctors each and every year,” Nassar says. “This village is filling the gap of Israel’s lack of doctors.”
From Harvard to Arraba
How did a village once known for farming turn into a medical mecca?
Dr. Hatim Kanaaneh, the first Western-trained doctor in Arraba, is credited with this reform.
Just as restaurateur Jawdat Ibrahim gave new life to the Arab-Israeli village of Abu Ghosh after he won the Illinois lottery and returned home to help a new generation of university students better their careers, Kanaaneh returned to his village in the late 1960s after receiving his medical degree from Harvard University.
Kanaaneh instigated a call for proper healthcare in the Galilee and raised awareness of the medical profession among his fellow Arabs.
The former public-health employee of the Israeli Ministry of Health then cofounded the non-governmental public health organization The Galilee Society to better serve Arab villages and towns.
He also authored a collection of short stories, Chief Complaint: A Country Doctor’s Tales of Life in Galilee.
“Dr. Hatim was not just a doctor giving us medicine back in the 1960s and 1970s; he was also a community public health leader. He raised awareness and he gave hope,” Nassar says about Kanaaneh’s impact on the community. “He’s also a good man and someone to emulate. So, when mothers and fathers want to invest in their children, they invest in education.”