Barzilai doctor attending to Gazan patient
Photo: Amir Cohen
Ambassadors of humanity
Israeli doctors who treat Gaza patients give us hope for better future
For five months, doctors and nurses at Barzilai hospital in Ashkelon treated Vania Suleiman, a Jabaliya resident. Following a major stroke, she lost consciousness during her pregnancy. The attempts to stabilize her condition at a Gaza hospital failed and she was transferred to Barzilai. At the end of September, after doctors battled for her life and her fetus’ life for weeks, she gave birth to her third son.
Last Wednesday, Suleiman passed away and the medical team wiped away its tears. Two days later, a Qassam rocket landed in Ashkelon, shaking up the hospital and sowing fear and anxiety among those staying there.
“We knew the Suleiman family from up close. We were happy to see a healthy child born, and we were pained by the fact his mother didn’t get to see him. Our heart ached when she died,” said Doctor Yosef Mashil, as he rushed to treat a 40-year-old Gaza resident rushed to the hospital.
About 25 Gazans are hospitalized at the Ashkelon hospital. They arrive here after the hospital coordinates their transfer with Gaza medical facilities. This dialogue goes on all the time, even when the Qassams rain down. Nobody is keeping a score here. The war for saving lives is the only determining criteria, even when an endless war aimed at ending life rages outside.
While outside the hospital we see a war of destruction and killing, inside the hospital there is a war for the lives of patients, regardless of their national identity. If, heaven forbid, a Qassam will land at the hospital, Gazans will likely celebrate the great achievement. Nobody would think for a moment about Strip residents who are healing there.
It seems surrealistic and delusional, and some will say it’s unthinkable, but Barzilai’s model is the only moral answer to the chaos around us. This model is the way to build humane and normative neighborly relations within a mad, sick, and inhumane reality.
The small ray of light within the great darkness is that Vania Suleiman’s husband and children, who saw her being treated with endless dedication at the hospital, as well as the families of the other 25 Gaza patients hospitalized here, will moderate the level of hatred in Gaza upon returning to their homes.
They, who met Israelis wearing white robes who are only concerned about improving their welfare, may perhaps grow to be ambassadors of coexistence and of a dialogue of words rather than missiles. Nobody knows better than them that this is the only alternative we have around here.
