Finding hope in the Gaza conflict

January 5, 2009 - 7:56 AM by Nicky

One of the gifts of working for an organization like ISRAEL21c is that even in the midst of conflict and crisis, we get the rare privilege of seeing another side of the story.
In the last difficult week, when the images on TV and in the newspapers were so negative and heart wrenching, we still heard stories about ordinary Israeli Jews and Palestinians working together in an effort to bring reason, peace and humanity to the Middle East.
One of the most touching stories to emerge during this current terrible war was the tale of a tiny baby boy from Gaza called Jafar.

Born a few weeks ago with serious heart defects, his Palestinian doctors knew that he couldn’t survive without surgery. They phoned Dr. Akiva Tamir, an Israeli doctor they knew from the Israeli charity Save a Child’s Heart, and together the Israeli and Palestinian doctors raced to bring Jafar to Israel.
On Monday of last week, while missiles rained down on Gaza and southern Israel, Israeli doctors from Wolfson Medical Center near Tel Aviv volunteered their time, and performed surgery on the small boy. His grandmother was there waiting for him when he was transferred to intensive care.
Jafar is still at the hospital. He is recovering well. His heart surgery was a success. He joins a growing number of Palestinian children – 1,000 so far – who owe their lives to the volunteers at the wonderful charity Save a Child’s Heart.
Sometimes, like so many people here, I worry that this battle between Israel and Hamas will never end, but it’s stories like these, of individual Israelis and Palestinians working together and thinking far beyond the conflict that give me hope that one day things will be better.

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , • Category: General, Life, Politics, War, coexistence 

Comments

3 Comments on Finding hope in the Gaza conflict

  1. David-Joe on Mon, Jan 5th 2009 12:48 PM

    2. Before things can be better, minds have to be changed. And the only way is to change th reality on t he ground.

    Hamas did not become government in Gaza accidentally - the Arabs that live there VOTED for them so they are as much to blame for this as the Hamas rulers.

    If Israel can collapse the government and the Palestinians have enough courage to act differently then there can begin to be some sort of non-violent situation.

    The question to ask is not whether those Palestinians that work together in situations with Israelis or recieve help are friendly, but whether they accept Israel’s right to exist and are prepared to ACT accordingly - raising a government in their terroritory that will make a peaceful situation at the minimum with Israel.

    It is not unusual to find Palestinians that will act friendly but when questioned will state that they are against the Jewish state of Israel.

  2. Haveil Havalim #200- The Harvey Edition « Random Thoughts- Do They Have Meaning? on Thu, Jan 15th 2009 12:12 AM

    3. [...] Joel Katz presents Religion and State in Israel - January 5, 2009. Harry presents Kids’ play and Finding hope in the Gaza conflict. [...]

  3. Victims donating to victims | ISRAELITY on Fri, Jan 23rd 2009 10:27 AM

    4. [...] hidden behind the human shield of one of the most densely populated areas in the world. And as we’ve seen on ISRAELITY before, just because Israelis support our government’s recent war against a terrorist regime [...]

Leave a Comment





© 2009 ISRAELITY | Site by illuminea | Sitemap