Our People Do Not Know the Truth about You

A first-person account, from the always-excellent IMRA News Service:

Emek Hospital saves a Palestinian boy from Jenin

On Thursday, June 3, 2010, 15 year old Muhammed Kalalwe … noticed a deadly viper snake and tried killing it with a rock, but the dangerous creature struck out and bit his right palm. Screams and panic ensued and within minutes, the boy’s father, Hafed, grabbed his stricken son and rushed him to the Jenin Hospital. They were ill-prepared to treat the boy, had no anti-serum and decided to send him by ambulance to the Emek Medical Center in Afula. Hafed later related that he was genuinely afraid to be taken to Emek because he was sure that they would be ignored and not even spoken to…

The humanitarian reality of Emek shocked both the father and son as they were immediately greeted in Arabic, rushed into the ER where Emek’s multi-ethnic staff administered life-saving anti-serum and brought the boy back from the brink of death…

I asked the father how he felt now about Emek Hospital and the Israelis he has come into contact with. Staring me straight in the eyes he said, “Our people do not know the truth about you and our medicine has a long way to go. My son and I are not the same as we were before this happened and I will share this with my family and friends. May Al-lah bless all of you.”…

While walking back to my office, I passed one of my best friends – the Head of our Emergency Services, Dr. Azziz Daroushe who is a Muslim from the nearby Israeli village of Iksal. I asked him what he thought about this latest case where we were able to save another life from Jenin. With a twinkle in his eye and a knowing grin he answered, “It’s a good thing there are snakes.”

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7 Responses

  1. E. Fink says:

    What do you suppose would have happened had the roles been reversed?

  2. Mark says:

    What a good man. But I hope he isn’t too vocal about how good Israel is, because then he runs the risk of being killed!

  3. Benjamin E. says:

    E. Fink: Since that fateful day, if that father were the doctor in question – I think the response might be the same. And that’s one of the reasons we do it.

  4. Yehoshua Friedman says:

    Short of everyone on both sides doing teshuva (repentence), the problem seems to be that people are too healthy. When they are sick, the Arabs and Jews seem to get along.

  5. dovid says:

    “Our people do not know the truth about you …”

    “The humanitarian reality of Emek shocked both the father and son …”

    B’mechila, Reb Yaakov, you got it all wrong. The premise of your post assumes that “they” are uninformed of Israel’s “humanitarian reality”, which leads to the equally mistaken implied conclusion that if “they” only knew, bliss and peace would follow.

    This Hafed Abu Mohammad of your story is a LIAR. Rabbi Menken, explain this one to me. Hafed Abu Mohammad who lives in or near Jenin, some 9 miles from Afula is “shocked”. He says: “Our people do not know the truth about you …” Non-Arab, Muslim Sudanese, men, women, and children from Darfur walk on foot along a danger-loaded 900-mile trek to get to Israel. Central African Republic and Chad are the closest countries to Darfur. Both are poor African countries with substantial Islamic and Christian population. Libya, a wealthy Arab country is a little further, but not still too far. Egypt is considerably further. Still, the Non-Arab, Muslim Sudanese run from certain slaughter at the hands of their Arab Muslim brothers and seeks safe haven in Israel, 900 miles away. Some of them get shot to death on the way by the Egyptians, courtesy of Islamic hospitality. The Non-Arab, Muslim Sudanese are not “shocked” by the Jewish State’s humanity. They know of it through the word of mouth. The people of Haiti recently found out of the Jewish State’s humanity and compassion first hand, as the Turks have experienced it during earthquakes in the past 15-20 years.

    Now, this is my million dollar question to you and the readership. What are young Mohammad and his father going to do with their “newly found” revelation that Jews are not monkeys and pigs after all, but human beings of the first order, they are Tzelem Elokim? Are they going to spread the good news? My guess is that young Mohammad will be expected to burnish his Arab credentials and join Al-Aksa Brigades as he comes of age. Ask anyone in the ‘Arab Street’ what makes a good Arab, what is a good Muslim. One who kills Jews primarily, but also other “undesirable” non-Arabs. Who are the Arab Street’s heroes? Samir Kuntar, imach sh’mo v’zichrono, who shot to death an Israeli in front of his 4-year old daughter, after which he smashed the little girl’s skull with the butt of his AK-47. Our Muhammad will be expected to be a ‘good Muslim’ and emulate Kuntar.

  6. Lawrence M. Reisman says:

    Sorry to add a sour note. Does anyone remember Terry Boulatta? She was an Arab girl who received a heart transplant at Hadassah Hospital; the donor was an American-born Yeshiva talmid murdered by Arabs. (The nonreligious parents consented to the organ donation.) For years afterwards, when she went to Hadassah for annual checkups, she was interviewed by the Israeli media. Her message was always the same: The Arabs should kill more Jews so Arabs could get their organs for transplant.

    Not everyone learns the right lesson from Israeli Chesed.

  7. dovid says:

    “Sorry to add a sour note.”

    How about this one? US Foreign Aid over the years to the residents of Gaza and the West Bank considerably exceeded that of the Arab states. This doesn’t stop the Palestinians from hating and cursing America. The concept of gratitude and aknowledging a favor simply does not exist in the Arab world.

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