Deputy minister accused of delaying funds for Arab-run gov’t facility.

The Israel Medical Association charged Deputy Health Minister Ya’acov Litzman on Sunday with delaying the transfer of ministry budgets to Nahariya’s state-owned Western Galilee Hospital because its director-general is an Israeli Arab.

Litzman’s recent statements in the Knesset about the hospital “raise the smell of racism,” said IMA chairman Dr. Leonid Eidelman.

The IMA chairman based his statement on protocols from the Knesset in which Litzman made accusations against Dr. Mas’ad Barhoom, the only Arab director of a government hospital. The deputy minister claimed Barhoom “doesn’t allow his [Jewish] employees to pray” during their work in the hospital and pointedly noted that Barhoom “isn’t a Jew,” Eidelman added.