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December 19, 2003
The Mideast has its positives
Not every story coming from Israel has to do with people getting
killed.
CARL ALPERT SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH BULLETIN
Arab suicide bomber kills 20 Jews in a restaurant. Israel's anti-terror
fence separates thousands of Arab farmers from their fields. Jewish
women and children killed in Arab attack on a bus. Hunger and unemployment
are rampant in Palestine Authority areas as a result of Israeli
curfews. Arab children victims of Israeli rockets....
One would get the impression, from reading news reports, that all
contacts between the two peoples are marked by enmity and mutual
hostility. Little attention is given to instances of friendship
and good will, many of which, unfortunately, never get reported.
Here are some recent examples that show another, more positive,
side to Middle East reality:
• The St. Gabriel Hotel in Nazareth was recently the scene
of a three-day seminar attended by Jews and Muslims, devoted to
discussion of the many elements that the two peoples have in common.
• Two nurses in the Hadassah Hospital emergency room, Ayad
Abu-S'ara and Doris Livni, were jointly honored for their devoted
service to patients during times of emergency and tranquillity alike.
• Fassouta, a Christian village in the Galilee with 3,000 inhabitants,
received computer equipment, access to the Internet and vocational
training, thanks to a generous gift from the Chicago Jewish Federation
and the Catholic Archdiocese of Chicago.
• Special assistance provided by Israeli officials in Judea
and Samaria facilitated the flight to Europe of seven young Palestinian
children who required life-saving medical treatment. Costs were
covered by the European Union.
• About 20 young people in Israel, ages 13 to 19, Arabs and
Jews, have formed an orchestra that practises regularly and plays
at special events at Arab and Jewish schools. The project is under
the auspices of
UNESCO.
• When an 11-year-old Palestinian boy, Walid Odeh, died as
the result of a fall from a roof, his parents had no objection to
having his vital body organs transplanted into the bodies of three
Israeli children, thereby saving their lives.
• Meetings of heads of municipalities in Israel and the Palestine
Authority to encourage tourism were inaugurated in 2000 by the European
Union, but were halted with the outbreak of the intifada. Such meetings
have now been resumed, setting forth itineraries of particular interest
to Christian pilgrims. Six cities, three from each side, are participating.
• Surgeon Khalid Abu Ajamia saved the life of a badly injured
Jewish settler when the latter was brought to the Palestinian Alia
Hospital in Hebron in 1997. Abu Ajamia was enabled to enrol for
advanced training in plastic surgery at Hadassah in Jerusalem, and
today is one of 10 Palestinian surgeons in various Hadassah departments.
Time magazine reported that last year he found himself treating
two victims of a Palestine suicide bombing in Jerusalem, and at
the same time a nine-year-old Arab boy from Hebron, who was terribly
burned when an Israeli rocket exploded beside him. For Abu Ajamia,
there are no enemies, only patients.
• Dr. Vadim Aharonovitz had been called up for reserve duty
and was manning a vital checkpost outside Kalkilya one night when
an ambulance rushed up from the Palestinian side. He was aware that
ambulances had been detected transporting armaments, but when he
inspected he discovered an Arab women in the final stages of delivery.
He took over control and assisted in the safe delivery of an infant
girl.
• Despite differences on many issues, Israel and the Palestinian
Authority have signed an accord on a matter of vital concern to
the two neighbors. They have agreed to share electrical networks,
set up a joint regulatory authority on energy and study the possibility
of setting up a central power station. It is the first major act
of co-operation between Israel and the PA since the start of the
intifada three years ago.
• This spring, a group of 300 Israelis, half of them Arab dignitaries
and half of them Jews, spent four days in Poland visiting the Auschwitz-Birkenau
death camps and other sites associated with the Holocaust. The project
was initiated by a Nazareth priest, Father Emil Shofani. The Arabs
heard detailed accounts of the Holocaust and stood in silence as
Kaddish was recited at Auschwitz.
• For the past 10 years, experts from the Water Research Institute
at the Technion, in Haifa, have been meeting with water authorities
from the Palestinian territories, Egypt and Jordan to develop a
joint program for their use of the limited water supply of the area.
A specialized, three-year program for joint treatment and reuse
of waste water for irrigation and other purposes has just been completed,
with important input from other Israeli academic institutions as
well.
• And every week brings fresh reports of similar good will
and co-operation that seldom make headlines.
Carl Alpert is a freelance writer living in Haifa.
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