I Shall Not Hate: A Gaza Doctor's Journey (28 page)

We must work diligently on this journey to peace. Hatred and darkness can only be driven out with love and light. Let us build a new generation, one that believes that advancing human civilization is a shared project among all peoples and that the most holy thing in the universe is humanity and freedom. If we want to spread peace throughout this planet, we should start in the holy lands of Palestine and Israel. Instead of building a wall let us build bridges of peace.

As a physician, I do not lose hope as long as the patient is alive. But faced with deteriorating health, I need to be willing and creative enough to search for a new course of treatment. We all need to search for the causes of our failure in the human journey to peace and discover why we are not happy, satisfied and secure. The cause is inside us, not outside us—in our own hearts and minds. Hate is a chronic disease and we need to heal ourselves of it, and work toward a world in which we eradicate poverty and suffering. If a free society cannot help the many who are poor, it cannot save the few who are rich from this affliction.

First, we must join together to fight our mutual enemy, which is our ignorance of each other. We must smash and destroy the mental and physical barriers within each of us and between us. We must speak as one and move forward as one to achieve our brighter future; we are all living in one boat and any harm to the people in this boat endangers all of us. We must stop blaming each other and adopt the values of ours, us and we.

Talking is good but it is not enough. We must act: people are suffering and dying every day. The smallest action is more resonant and crosses more boundaries than any words. As Martin
Luther King said, “Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter. In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.”

So what can you do? You can do a lot. You can support justice for all by speaking out loudly to your family, friends, community, politicians and religious leaders. You can support foundations who do good work. You can volunteer for humanitarian organizations. You can vote regressive politicians out of office. You can do many things to move the world towards greater harmony.

We all make mistakes and commit sins from time to time. I know that what I have lost, what was taken from me, will never come back. But as a physician and a Muslim of deep faith, I need to move forward in to light, motivated by the spirits of those I lost. I need to bring them justice.

There’s a story I have been telling in my speeches that sums up the potential of one small act in the face of a situation that seems insurmountable. A man is walking along the sea shore as the tide ebbs, revealing a multitude of stranded starfish. Soon he comes upon a young girl, who is picking up the starfish one by one and returning them to the sea. So he asks the girl, “What are you doing?” And she replies, “They will die if I don’t get them back into the water.”

“But there are so many of them,” the man says. “How can anything you do make a difference?”

The girl picks up another starfish and carries it to the sea. “It makes a difference to this one.”

I lost three wonderful daughters but I am blessed with five other children and I have the future. I believe that Einstein was right when he said life is like riding a bicycle: to keep balanced, we must keep moving. I will keep moving but I need you to join me in this long journey.

In my life I am indebted to my mother, Dalal, my late wife, Nadia, my daughters Bessan, Dalal, Shathat, Mayar, Aya and Raffah, and my sons Mohammed and Abdullah. I would love it if my mother, my wife and my three lost daughters could rise from their graves to witness that the spilt blood of my three daughters was not in vain. I assure all of them that they are all remembered through me and my surviving children’s good deeds and that they can rest in peace knowing that there has been much good will towards humanity since their death.

I feel privileged and thank from my heart all those who expressed compassion, sympathy and support for my family and me in our loss: the Palestinian people, Israeli friends, colleagues and the general public, and many members of the international community who have recognized that we must take action to stop the spread of hate. Special thanks go to Shlomi Eldar, who had the courage to expose and disclose the reality facing Palestinian civilians during the crazy war the IDF called Operation Cast Lead.

I am also deeply indebted to Sally Armstrong, a distinguished Canadian journalist, who travelled to my home to meet with me and my family. Her help to me in the writing of this book was invaluable. Without that help, this book would never have seen the light.

For their enormous generosity, I’d like to thank the many friends and colleagues who contributed to the creation of this
book by reviewing, editing and commenting on the manuscript, especially Anne E. Sumner, Greta Maddox, Judith Weinroth, Anne Collins and Michael Levine.

I would also like to thank Dr. Marek Glezerman, who contributed the introduction among many other things in my life, and his wife Tzvia; Bruno Buchet; Jean-Marc Delizee; Bertrand Delanoe, the Mayor of Paris; Dr. Salam Fayyad, the Prime Minister of the Palestinian Authority; my Belgian friends, especially Veronique de Keyser; Luisa Morgantini, an Italian member of the European Parliament; Hans-Gert Pöttering, the former president of the European Parliament; the Canadian government and people who welcomed us with open arms.

Special thanks go to my niece Ghaida and all my family; to my lovely daughter Shatha for her courage and determination and her ability to still be smiling. And to Dalal, who helped so enormously and has taken on such responsibility.

I would also like to thank the staff of the Kamal Edwan Hospital in Gaza, the personnel who delivered the essential medical and paramedical help we received; the doctors who saved the life of my niece and the eyes and fingers of my daughter; Professor Barret and the staff at the Sheba hospital in Israel. Special thanks to Professor Shlomo Mor-Yosef and Professor Zeev Rotstein.

I am also grateful to Professors Abdallah Daar and Peter Singer; Ahmad Mashharawi; Joseph Moisseiev, the director of the Goldschleger Eye Institute; Jacqueline Swartz; Itaf Awad; Maha Daghash; Jamal Daghash; Silvia Margia; Yaacov Glickman; and Anael Harpaz.

I am deeply grateful for the support, encouragement and wisdom of my sincere friend Michael Dan. Special thanks to all I did not mention, but who I know are with me and with my children in their hearts.