Articles/123368 Peace

The Unbroken Bridge Conversations Myra Cohen Klenicki, her late husband Rabbi Leon Klenicki and Dr. Izzeldin Abuelaish have been friends for years. She recounts for Perspectives a recent conversation with Abuelaish, a 2010 nobel Peace Prize nominee, about his work as a physician and peace activist. Richard Kemp, an expert on warfare and his belief in the humanity of all people. former commander of British forces in “We are similar, we are equal,” he says, Afghanistan, was quoted in the New York “and the beauty in life is to help others. Times as saying that the Israeli army in gaza “did more to safeguard the rights of civilians I met Izzeldin in 1997. As soon as I heard in a combat zone than any other army in about him, I knew I had struck PR pay dirt: the history of warfare.” Even so, a large a Palestinian doctor, no less, who was a number of civilians were killed and resident at the teaching hospital of Ben- wounded and many homes destroyed. gurion university of the negev (Bgu), the Israeli university for whose American The Israeli army has been unable or fundraising organization I was the director unwilling to offer an explanation as to why of public relations. Dr. Abuelaish’s home was shelled. he and his house were well known and neither he Many Bgu donors embraced the nor his many Israeli friends can understand university’s philosophy that helping Israel’s how or why this happened. nevertheless, neighbors and fostering understanding “Hatred is a disease. It is something bad Dr. Abuelaish has been able to forgive and between Arabs and Jews could help bring for your body to carry.” continue to work for peace and coexistence about peace. For years, Bgu had engaged in Dr. Izzeldin Abuelaish between Israelis and Palestinians. joint research with its neighbors, including the West Bank and gaza, and its student In addition to his faith in Islam, his profession body included Israeli Bedouins and Druze. has also helped Dr. Abuelaish forgive. “Being now the staff of its teaching hospital, hen it is your children who a physician also has a role,” he says. “It is to Soroka Medical Center, included a have become “collateral work for humanity the same way a doctor Palestinian from gaza. And he was Wdamage” in a seemingly endless relieves the suffering of patients.” coming to the united States. conflict, when you have seen their bodies torn apart, their young lives obliterated, how he calls hatred a disease. “It is something Izzeldin was to attend seminar at Johns do you not hate? how do you not rage? bad for your body to carry,” he says. “I don’t hopkins hospital in Maryland. I arranged to want to be poisoned. If I want to move have him come to new York City after the “Religion and deep faith,” is Dr. Izzeldin forward, I must be healthy and to be healthy, seminar for meetings with donors in new Abuelaish’s answer. On January 16, 2009, you must get rid of this disease. And this is York and new Jersey. unfortunately, he Dr. Abuelaish, a well-known Palestinian the right way as a human being.” would be arriving in new York on the peace activist and physician, lost three Saturday of a long holiday weekend. Our daughters and a niece when an Israeli tank My late husband, Rabbi Leon Klenicki, and I office would be closed until Tuesday, and shell mistakenly shelled his home in gaza. have known Izzeldin for many years. he has many of our donors would be out of the been a friend and an inspiration. he is an city. he would be stuck in a hotel room in a Israel’s army took a military action in gaza extraordinary man who has experienced strange city, and I concluded that I would in 2008 against militants who had been tragedy of Job-like proportions, yet he have to “baby sit” the good doctor. firing thousands of rockets into Israel. remains grounded in his faith in god and PERSPECTIVES 28 I booked him into a hotel a block from our he was forceful in expressing his from King’s College hospital in London apartment and informed my husband that conviction that the Palestinians had a in 2000. we would be entertaining a Palestinian right to a homeland. But, he said, it was doctor over the weekend. a homeland he believed must co-exist he received a Masters in Public health with Israel rather than replace it. Policy and Management from harvard “A Palestinian?” Leon gasped, raising his university in 2004, and in 2006, became a eyebrows almost to his yarmulke. “I feel “Palestinians and Israelis should cope with PhD candidate at the Centre for health very uneasy about this.” To be honest, each other to find the solution,” he told us. Planning and Management at Keele so did I. “And there is no solution other than peace university in England. for the benefit of our children and the Leon and I were both ardent supporters peaceful future of our two peoples.” his ability to continue to work in Israel of Israel. As Director of Interfaith Relations was curtailed when in response to suicide for the Anti-Defamation League and its growing up in a gaza occupied by Israel bombings and missile attacks, Israel closed representative to the Vatican, Leon’s work had not been easy. Born in the Jabalya the border with gaza. he has been working included battling anti-Israel sentiments. refugee camp, Izzeldin was the oldest son with various governmental and world health he, like Pope John Paul II, believed that in a family of six boys and three girls. he organizations to improve medical care to anti-Zionism was often a façade to told us that when he was 14, his family’s people in Yemen and Afghanistan as well disguise anti-Semitism. home was one of more than 1000 others as in gaza. bulldozed by order of Arial Sharon, Israel’s Before working for AABgu, I had spent commander in the region at that time. To During these years, Leon and I met with 16 years at the Consulate general of help his family earn money to buy a new Izzeldin for dinners, lunches and coffees Israel in new York as director of the house, Izzeldin got a job in Israel. either in Israel or in new York. The last time Israel Broadcasting Service in America. I saw Izzeldin in Israel was in 2000. I was My job was to write and produce radio he worked for a family in a moshav, an there to shoot a video on water research programs and videos to promote Israel’s agricultural village. From six in the morning and management, and Izzeldin asked me to image in the uS. To Leon and me, until eight at night, he cleaned chicken visit his home and meet his family. On my Palestinians were epitomized by the coops and labored at various farming day off, I took a taxi from Beer-Sheva to the leering face of Yassir Arafat holding a gun as he addressed the general Assembly of the united nations or gloating over the He had accepted a residency at an Israeli hospital deaths of Israeli kindergarten children to be “a bridge for peace and mutual cooperation massacred in a terrorist attack. between the Israelis and the Palestinians.” Izzeldin was a revelation. When I met him in the lobby of his hotel, chores. The Israeli family he worked for border checkpoint. Once I told the polite the genuine warmth of his greeting and was kind to him and he says, “I discovered but puzzled Israeli soldiers why I wanted the breadth of his smile instantly won me we are all human.” to enter gaza, they let me through. Izzeldin over. Then there were the gifts: a beautiful was waiting for me on the other side to embroidered scarf and a scroll with a In forty days, he was able to earn take me to his home. cloth stating, “home Sweet home,” enough to make a substantial contribution embroidered by his mother. I treasure toward the new house for his family. he I met his mother, his wife, his eight children, them both to this day. returned to gaza but has stayed in touch and a large number of his brothers and with the Israeli family to this day. sisters and their children who also lived in That evening, as we dined with Izzeldin his house. Izzeldin’s children spoke Arabic in our apartment, Leon was also utterly Izzeldin studied medicine at Cairo university and hebrew. I, like a typical American, spoke disarmed by his sweetness, his kindness, his in Egypt and specialized in Obstetrics and only English. nevertheless, we managed charm and his all-encompassing love for gynecology in Saudi Arabia in collaboration to understand each other and to laugh humanity. he told us that he had accepted with the Institute of Obstetrics and together as I struggled to eat the endless, a residency at an Israeli hospital to be “a gynecology, university of London. While heaping portions of delicious food his wife bridge for peace and mutual cooperation doing his residency in Israel, he received and mother kept loading onto my plate. between the Israelis and the Palestinians.” a postgraduate diploma in fetal medicine PERSPECTIVES 29 I particularly remember Izzeldin’s oldest Izzeldin says, “no country will develop if understanding. he says, “What I have lost, it daughter, Bessan. She was curious to women’s status is not there. We need will never come back.

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