YERUSHALAYIM – The Rambam Medical Center in Haifa saved the life of a Bahraini princess, according to Deputy Minister for Regional Cooperation Ayoub Kara.
The treatment, which apparently took place in 2010, was approved by Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu. Hospital officials confirmed that a Bahraini princess had been admitted at the time, but neither the hospital spokesmen nor Kara gave her name or any specifics about her condition.
“In Bahrain, they didn’t really give her a chance to survive,” Kara told Times of Israel. “At the end, we received her here, she underwent an operation, and subsequently even spent some time [at a rehabilitation center] in Nesher next to Haifa.”
“She said she believed that Israel was the [best] place for her to get better. She turned down [an] American offer. She said she wanted to undergo the operation only in Israel,” he said.
The incident helped pave the way for better relations with Bahrain, Kara said, and he will now meet with officials from the tiny Gulf nation, part of the ongoing effort to build bridges with Sunni Arab states in the region.
Israel and Bahrain have no formal diplomatic relations. The Foreign Ministry declined to comment on Kara’s statements.