MK Tatiana Mazarsky (Yesh Atid) criticized the Health Ministry's requirement that pharmacists immigrating to Israel complete an internship at a government hospital before being allowed to continue practicing as pharmacists at Monday's Knesset Immigration and Absorption Committee meeting.

This, Mazarsky said, creates a long wait despite a nationwide shortage of professionals.

Further, Mazarsky added that new immigrant pharmacists from the former Soviet Union claim they are being discriminated against because they are required to complete longer internships than others, based on the Health Ministry's belief that their training in their home countries was conducted via correspondence rather than face-to-face.

Mazarsky's comments follow the state's reluctance to accept over 170 qualified pharmacists who intend to make aliyah in the coming year and have opened files with the Jewish Agency.

Some 77 of those planning to immigrate are from the United States, 39 from France, and the rest are from the former Soviet Union states. 

According to a recent Health Ministry survey, the number of employed pharmacists in Israel in 2023 was 0.08 per 1,000 citizens, significantly lower than the OECD average of 0.91. 

"New immigrants who are pharmacists by profession arrive [in Israel] with the appropriate education and relevant experience," Mazarsky said at the meeting. "Israel should embrace them and assist with the bureaucratic process."

"The state can absorb high-quality immigrants into required professions without investing a single shekel in training," she said, urging the Health Ministry to "re-examine the study conditions of pharmacists immigrating from the former Soviet Union."

Liza Esther Shovik, a pharmacist and representative of the New Immigrant Pharmacists Association, highlighted problems she claims stem from the state's failure to absorb many new immigrants who could join the pharmacy workforce in Israel.

"Many immigrants who are involved in the pharmacy profession do not find a place to do their internship, and the government is unable to help," Shovik explained. "We [the association] were able to create a professional Hebrew study center that is geared toward pharmacy and medical professions, which helps immigrants successfully integrate into the Israeli job market."

Health Ministry representative Ragda Hakim responded to the claims, noting that internships can be done "at national insurance provider-run medical institutions, not just government hospitals, provided applicants have an adequate command of the Hebrew language."

"All new immigrants who contact us with inquiries about the pharmacy profession receive an appropriate response," Hakim said.

MK Vladimir Beliak (Yesh Atid) added that he was "saddened to hear the Health Ministry's words," and that the Health Ministry must "reconsider its decision regarding remote studies conducted in the former Soviet Union states."

Asya Chirsky of the Jewish Agency said that many pharmacists are still choosing not to immigrate to Israel because they are unsure they will be able to be professionally absorbed.

"At the moment," she said, "there is no information available in a variety of languages regarding the submission of applications for all professions for immigrants."