Middle East News"

A Palestinian gynaecologist in an Israeli hospital Published: Sunday, Jan 30, 2011, 3:07 IST  By Lhendup Gyatso Bhutia | Place: Mumbai | Agency: DNA

After losing three of his daughters in a shelling by Israeli troops, 55-year-old Izzeldin Abuelaish wrote a memoir titled I Shall Not Hate: A Gaza Doctor’s Journey, published in 2010. Abuelaish is a peace advocate and a Palestinian doctor who worked in Israel for over 18 years. Listening to him recount his experiences proved to be an emotional experience for the audience at the Jaipur Literature Festival. Excerpts from an interview: What made you write I Shall Not Hate…?  I always wanted to write about my experiences as a Palestinian doctor working in Israel. But I never got down to it. Then on January 16, 2009, during the war on Gaza, my life changed forever. The Israeli army shelled my house and three of my daughters died. The eldest was 20 years old; the other two, 15 and 13. The daughter who survived was blinded in one eye. Just four months prior to that, my wife had died of leukemia. In memory of my lost daughters, I established a foundation called Daughters For Life, which would help young girls and women get an education. I also wanted the Israeli government to take responsibility for the death of my daughter. So I asked them for compensation, which I thought I would put into the foundation. I pestered them for two years, but one day I received a letter saying, ‘There have been collateral damages’. As though my daughters were objects, not human beings. That is when I decided I must write my book, to tell the world about my pain and how hate and violence will never work. How was your experience as a doctor in Israel? Except for one occasion when the husband of a Jewish patient accused me of jeopardising his wife’s pregnancy because I was a Palestinian, I never faced any hatred towards me in Israel. In Palestine, my neighbours would sometimes scorn me for delivering babies who would grow into soldiers who bomb and shoot us. Given the continuing violence in Gaza, do you feel like giving up? Never. I will never give up. The only impossible thing is to get my daughters back. I have made a promise on their dead bodies that I will get justice for them, that I will not let them die in vain. We have to let people know the futility of violence. Hate and revenge can’t be treated by hate. Darkness needs light. Light needs darkness. That is the antidote. But what is the basis for your hope?  I’m a doctor. I cannot give up. I will not give up till I have healed a patient. And thus I remain hopeful. Israel and Palestine are like the heart and the mind. You cannot treat one without the other. So you think a solution is possible in the near future?  Why not? The problems are man-made. We can change it. We just need to try. We need to ensure that politicians do not politicise but humanise. Humanity is greater than anything. Greater than religion, ethnicity, languages, caste and creed. And this issue will get solved the day everybody realises it is a crime against humanity. What do you think of the current situation in Gaza? It is not just about my daughters. The Gaza strip has a population of 1.5 billion people. 50% of them are children, and 20% are women. Violence against them is a crime against humanity. We cannot only blame terrorists. We need to see why they became terrorists. (dnaindia) ================================================ =