Wednesday 24 June 2009

Daughters for Life

Every so often, something happens; a gesture or an action so utterly transparent in its authenticity, its genuineness, that it humbles us all, reminds us that beneath all the cant and rhetoric we still possess a human core; a core that respects, instinctively, the rights of our fellow man.

Dr Izzeldein Abuelaish is a gynacologist by training and a researcher at the Gertner Institute for Epidemiology, just outside Tel Aviv, as well as at hospitals in Gaza, where he lived. He was brought, painfully, to the attention of the wider world when his home was shelled by a tank during the Gaza offensive earlier this year. A Hebrew speaker, he had been interviewed several times by journalists unable to get into Gaza themselves during the campaign; he was telephoned by Shlomi Eldar just after the shell struck, killing his three daughters and a niece. The conversation was broadcast live to the nation on Channel 10 (the clip has English subtitles, if you need them), and for a short moment the abstractions of Israel's actions were crystallised, given human form.

Dr Abuelaish has set up a website in memory of his daughters, and as personal testimony to his belief that a peace can still be achieved one day.

"Every war has its symbol. Now that my three daughters are gone, I hope they will become the symbol of this war. A positive symbol that will strengthen the thought that one day we will reach peace."

www.daughtersforlife.com

2 comments:

Adam Ehad said...

Fascinating stuff.
The first time that martyrs have been used to promote peace rather than war?

"The blood of my brothers cries from the ground"...but it is us who decide the words that the blood is crying!

Adam Ehad said...
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