Hadassah denies acting dishonestly over Netanyahu’s undisclosed prostate cancer treatment

Jerusalem’s Hadassah Hospital denies acting dishonestly over the delayed release of information surrounding Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s treatment for prostate cancer earlier this year.

Netanyahu only acknowledged yesterday that he had undergone treatment, and Hadassah Ein Karem then confirmed that this was the case. It said the cancer was discovered “a few months ago,” that Netanyahu was given radiation therapy “two and a half months ago,” and that a follow-up check two and a half months later — evidently very recently — showed the disease to have “disappeared.”

Channel 12’s health reporter Yoav Even says he asked Hadassah 10 days ago whether Netanyahu had been undergoing any medical treatment at the hospital. Hadassah “did not respond officially,” Even says, “but they said, ‘there is no significant medical event at Hadassah Ein Karem that is being kept hidden from the public’.”

“That was a lie,” charges Even, as was demonstrated yesterday, he says, when Netanyahu acknowledged the cancer treatment.

In response, Hadassah issues a statement insisting it has “always only told the truth,” but adding that “publishing details from the prime minister’s personal medical file is the responsibility of the Prime Minister’s Office.”

“The hospital’s role is solely to give the best medical treatment to all, including the prime minister,” it adds.

Even notes that, when he spoke to the hospital 10 days ago, it did not refer him to the PMO for details.

He also notes that this is not the first time that hospitals have been caught in this kind of controversy, recalling the circumstances in which Netanyahu was fitted with a pacemaker in July 2023 and allegations that Tel Aviv’s Sheba Hospital kept the public in the dark about the severity of his condition at the time.