Ilana Cohen, Former Nurses Union Chair and Knesset Member, Dies at 82

Ilana Cohen, the longtime chair of the Nurses Organization in Israel and a leading figure in nurses’ labor struggles for 35 years, died on Sunday at age 82. Cohen, born in Iraq, immigrated to Israel and began her career as a nurse in the internal medicine ward at Assaf Harofeh Medical Center.

She became known for hard-line negotiations with finance and health ministers and for her blunt public appeals. In one of her best-known quotes, she urged the Finance Ministry to look into the eyes of the nurses, saying they worked in “impossible conditions,” were being exploited, and that the struggle should continue “day and night until white smoke comes out.”

In 1988, Cohen went on a 15-day hunger strike with fellow nurses. At the time, she described overcrowded wards in Ashkelon, where 70 patients were placed in rooms meant for 38, with some housed in bathrooms and dining rooms, saying, “They lie there like homeless people.” That protest helped secure the staffing formula for hospital nurses that is still in place today.

Cohen later entered politics after joining Amir Peretz, serving as a Knesset member for the One Nation party from 2003 to 2006. She signed hundreds of agreements for nurses, helped add staffing positions, and supported the opening of nursing schools. The article says she also fought for elderly people and mental health patients, and that her work transformed nursing and the wider health system.