Hadassah doctor holds Palestinian baby he operated on (AP)
"[T]here are many, many activities taking place in Israel by Israelis and Palestinians to build bridges, small bridges to peace and it’s not just what you see on television that we kill each other and we fight each other. There’s another face to the relationship between these two people."Q: What is Hadassah doing as it relates to the Arab-Israeli conflict?
We are a hospital. We are not doing anything to resolve the conflict, but we are doing everything in order to keep the conflict outside the hospital. And we do it pro-actively. It’s not just that we are a hospital and we are waiting here for patients to come, and we treat everyone, whether they are Jews or Arabs. But we are very much involved in different types of activities in order to bring together Jews and Arabs.
Hadassah is located in Jerusalem where we have some sort of mixture of Israelis and Palestinians; many Palestinians can come from the West Bank to Jerusalem – it’s very close, from Bethlehem it’s ten minutes to the hospital, and from Ramallah it’s thirty minutes to the hospital. So, we feel that we would like to help with their medical problems as well as help them build their medical system. We believe that the most important assistance is really to help them build services and infrastructures so that they’d be able to provide services to their people.
So, these are the main activities and if we are looking for examples of medical services, we have a special arrangement and program for Palestinian children with heart disease and cardiac problems. They don’t have these services in the West Bank at all. They don’t have pediatric cardiac surgery. So we, together with some other organizations, including the Peres Center for Peace, which is based in Israel and was founded by our president, Shimon Peres, and another organization – a French organization which fundraises for this activity bring children from the Palestinian Authority to Hadassah and operate on them free of charge. Part of the funds comes from donors; part comes from Hadassah’s budget. So this is one example. Another example is that we treat Palestinian children with cancer. They don’t have services for children such as pediatric oncology, so, on the same basis that I spoke about cardiac surgery, I mention pediatric oncology.
We also try to bring doctors from the West Bank to be trained at Hadassah.
We have a few programs to help the Palestinians cope with the problems in the Palestinian Authority. One is a special program that we have had for the last fifteen years that is fully sponsored by the Kahana Foundation, based in Austria. Every year we have at least 10 Palestinian doctors on a full residency program in different specialties. So we train them and they go back to the Palestinian Authority to run services over there and graduates of this program are already heads of departments, directors of hospitals, senior physicians and are responsible for Palestinian health services.
Another way is really to support the hospitals that serve the Palestinian Authority. In East Jerusalem, there is a hospital called Augusta Victoria, which is one of the main hospitals for Palestinians around Jerusalem and the West Bank for specific fields. They wanted to start an oncology service with radiation therapy, so they found resources for the equipment, and they came to us and asked for our partnership to build a service. So we trained doctors and nurses and technicians in our hospital for more than a year, in order to be able to provide services with the modern machines they bought for their hospital. It’s the same thing we did for pediatric oncology. The training is not just to come here and be trained. The relationship continues afterwards when they go back to their hospital. If they would like to consult with us, if they would like to come to be part of the academic activities in our hospital, they are more than welcome.
These are a few examples of our activities which I’m sure help to solve the conflict. We are not so naive that we believe that we’ll solve the conflict via these activities. But I’m sure that it reduces tension that people come here as patients and staff from both sides, and they see that we don’t just shoot each other, but we also touch each other and care for each other. It’s a message. In the mission statement of the hospital, there is a line that says that Hadassah would like to be a bridge to peace in our activities. As a humanitarian organization – as Hadassah in the U.S., as the hospital here, this is part of our mission statement.
Q: Can you tell me an individual story that reflects that part of your mission?
I can share with you individual stories that show also the problems. One of the problems is that all of what I have said sounds very sterile, very clear. But when you have to operate in an environment in which buses are blown up every week, there are bombs in discotheques, or schools, or in the Hebrew University – the general atmosphere in which we have to operate is very, very problematic. So, it’s a lot of effort in education, and a lot of talks and workshops in order to trust, to be able to separate between our feeling outside the hospital and our professions when we put the white coat on.
A few examples of these problems: One of the nurses, her sister was killed in one of the suicide bombings, and when she came back to work, she said that it’s very difficult for her to treat Palestinian patients. So I asked her what she expected us to do. She said, if it’s possible, that at least for the first month, she would stay in rooms where we don’t have Palestinian patients. And we respected that. Even though you can say, she is professional, she has to treat everybody – and she knew it, and she wanted to, but she said on a personal level in the first period after she lost her sister, she wanted to at least be able to recover gradually from it. After a month or six weeks, she came and said I am ready now to go back as it was before, so this is one example.
Another example is of an Arab social worker who was based in our emergency room. She came to me and said that she feels that when victims of terror attacks come to the hospital, to the emergency room, they don’t expect that the first person that will approach them will be a Palestinian social worker. She offered that at these times she be based in a different area of the emergency room.
This is to show the sensitivity of the professionals from both sides to the situation, and the way we have to adapt ourselves to different situations at different times that mainly happen outside the hospital and we have to react.
Now there are many, many personal stories of patients, but I want to tell you the story of the beginning of the cardiac surgery project. The funds came via the Peres Center for Peace from Northern Italy. One of the municipalities decided to support the Palestinian health care system, and they offered that the operations will be done in Northern Italy, and they would cover all the costs. They said kids with a family member would come to northern Italy, will be operated on over there, and then will come back to their homes.
They started with six Palestinian patients, and that was it. When they asked the patients why they didn’t want to come, they said, “We prefer to go to Hadassah.” So for the Italians, it was very strange. To Hadassah, to the Israelis? They are killing you, why would you like to come to Hadassah? They said “We would like to come to Hadassah.” So the Italians came to Hadassah and met with me, and wanted to see the organization and the facilities. We started the program and after 6 or 8 months when we had already operated on more than 50 kids, they came to visit, and they asked me why the Palestinians preferred Hadassah, so I explained to them. First of all, they feel at home here. Secondly, it’s close to their home, so they can come and go and visit, and not only one family member can stay with the kids. Then, also, the follow-up is easier, because the follow-up is here. They don’t have to ask a surgeon in Italy what to do if the child feels this and that. And then they said let’s have a look, have a tour. When we toured the department and I started to explain one of them said you don’t have to talk because I see the body language of the parents, which was very relaxed, and very welcoming. So this is an example. Really, on the personal level, at the hospital, we build an excellent and very nice relationship. Unfortunately, it doesn’t reflect the politicians or the political arena.
Q: Do you think there is some kind of a role that healthcare can play in moving progress forward – not on the political level, but on the personal level?
Yes. I’m sure that everyone who experiences this type of relationship – either the patients, or parents, or relatives, or visitors who come here – see that it’s possible and it’s really sincere. You can see it in the Arab woman who looks after a Jewish boy when his mother or father goes to buy something, or go to the toilet, and they take care of each other’s children. When you experience it, I’m sure it affects your personal view about the conflict.
Q: What do you think are the greatest obstacles to the work you do in Hadassah and the cooperative work with the PA?
The main problem is that every move is evaluated as a political move. I mean, when we invite doctors from the Palestinian Authority, they have to get approval to come here. When we offer some sort of cooperation either in research or clinical activities, it has to be approved by politicians, and isn’t just viewed as a humanitarian, academic interaction. It’s viewed also in terms of its political implications, especially from the Palestinian side. I don’t have to ask permission from my minister of health for this cooperation to happen. It’s obvious for them that it’s a part of what we have to do and on the other side, and it’s a bit more complicated. But, I must tell you that I have a very good relationship with the Deputy Minister of Health of the Palestinian Authority. He comes to Hadassah on a regular basis. We build together programs of joint activities, for them and us, so the lines are open.
Q: Is there something about diseases, about healthcare, about this field in general, that allows for this breaking down of barriers or this type cooperation?
People who choose to work in the healthcare system are different. They come to be a nurse, or a doctor, or a lab technician with an attitude that they would like to help people. It’s a very high quality of people, very educated, and this is one side of the formula. The other side is that when you are in pain, and when you are sick and you look for help, you really appreciate everyone who supports you. So I’m sure that this builds the arena in which cooperation and understanding are much easier.
Q: Beyond the Israeli-Palestinian side of things, does Hadassah have a relationship with other countries in the?
We try to share our knowledge and help with many other countries. We have activities in Ethiopia fighting AIDS, helping children with AIDS. We have activities in other countries in Africa, like Swaziland, which is not in the region obviously. We have a very close relationship with Cyprus and Turkey, and we have patients from the region, Jordan, the Gulf, but not in huge numbers at the moment. The Israeli healthcare system and Hadassah are known in the region so patients do come here, but unfortunately there are many, many obstacles to use the services in Israel.
Q: Is there anything else that I didn’t bring up that you think should be mentioned?
The only thing that is important to me, and the reason I agreed to be interviewed, is that the world should acknowledge the fact that there are many, many activities taking place in Israel by Israelis and Palestinians to build bridges, small bridges to peace and it’s not just what you see on television that we kill each other and we fight each other. There’s another face to the relationship between these two people.
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