| A Miracle of Co-Existence |
|
Wednesday, June 09, 2004 This week the ‘Separation Plan' -separating Israeli and Arab settlements and villages passed in the Cabinet by a narrow margin. We live in a strange place, this Israel. It's hard to explain to just about anyone how we (Arabs, Christians and Jews) co-exist even in times of peace let alone times of war (hot, lukewarm, or cold). You can tell where even the smallest cul-de -sac bistro is located by the armed guard sitting outside. Everyone undergoes bag checks and is electronically ‘wanded' before being permitted entrance to supermarkets, museums, libraries, malls and every other public place. Sure we (and you) see the images of war and of Arabs waiting at ‘check-points' for access to ‘greater' Israel, but do you know that in Shaare Zedek Medical Center, of the 687 babies born last month, and the 4,606 babies born since January 1st 2004, 15 % were born to Arab families, and that's just one of the three Jerusalem hospitals! _option_option_optionComing from the United States, visitors to the hospital are impressed that there are no private rooms - we still consider ourselves a socialistic State. With the exception of patients who need to be isolated because of the contagion of their diseases/conditions or their susceptibility to others', everyone is in a ward (four or five persons) or at the very least on ‘slow days' with one or two other patients. Secondly, it becomes obvious that Jewish patients may be ‘roommates' with Arab ones. In no department is this co-existence more obvious than on the pediatric floor, where at any time of the day or night, a mother may be helping out another mother by holding or calming a sick child, the garb and headdress identifying ethnicity, the attention and care identifying motherhood. As a Neuropsychologist and Medical Psychologist, I see patients with psychological trauma, developmental disabilities and other difficulties related to medical conditions and/or the brain/behavior relationship. My patients come in all sizes, races, creeds, and ages. A car accident or terrorist attack can happen to anyone, so can developmental disorders. There are some ‘Jewish' diseases that Arabs have, and vice versa (Gaucher disease is one case in point). Language is no barrier, one can always readily find an ‘in-house' interpreter for more languages than you can imagine, the ‘easy' ones are Amharic, Russian, Arabic, French, German, Yiddish and Farsi, but without much ado, I usually call the switchboard they know EVERYTHING about EVERYBODY, I have found help in Serbo/Croatian, Dutch, Ladino, Armenian and Georgian. Doctors and nurses of all denominations work together. A cousin recently had a baby on a Shabbat. The husband had brought his wife to the hospital before sunset, and after a long and, thank Gd, successful night in the delivery room, he just wanted to go home to check on his other three young children and get some sleep. Under normal circumstances he would have had to wait until after Shabbat (later that day). Instead, one of the nurses recommended that he take a ‘lift' from the mini-bus (driven by a non-Jew) which picks up and drops off the Arab and Jewish doctors and nurses, at set points, he gratefully did. But the recent story of Bnai Sachnin, a winning soccer team, is most emblematic. About 30,000 Arabs from Sachnin (practically the entire town), and other Arab and Jewish fans from the Galil descended (from northern Israel) on Ramat Gan (near Tel Aviv in Israel's center). The game was to decide who would represent Israel in the European Cup. At this game Bnai Sachnin played against the Hapoel Haifa team. This Arab-Israeli team also included two Africans: Guinea goal-keeper Komiko Kamara (a Moslem) and Etche from Cameroon as well as a Brazilian immigrant. Ayal Lachman is their Jewish coach, and captain of the team is Abass Suwan (Arab). They won, which means that Bnai Sachnin will represent Israel in the European Cup later in the year. Clearly these are miraculous times, and yes, this is a strange and wonderful place to live! |
