Bravo to the Sowetan for publishing a warm and balanced story written by Gill Katz.
Doctor defies the odds
Gill Katz
Please note: Some of the text may appear distorted due to problems with the text decipherer.
Hadassah Hospital in Jerusalem is a government hospital that not only serves Israel’s community of Jews, Christians and Muslims but has on its staff Palestinian doctors. This is the story of one of them, as told by Gill Katz.TO Dr Khafed al Jameer taking the Hippocratic Oath meant that in choosing medicine as his career, he also swore to tend to the sick, unconditionally. Trained as a doctor in Jordan, this affable, devout Muslim Palestinian works as a plastic surgeon at Jerusalem’s Hadassah Hospital, where the doctors he works with are mainly Jews.
Anywhere else in the world, a Muslim working side by side with Jewish doctors and treating Jewish patients would not be newsworthy.
But in a general hospital such as Hadassah in Jerusalem, given the ongoing clashes between the Israelis and Palestinians, it becomes a story of a man’s passion for his work, despite the hardships that accompany his lifestyle.
"I am a doctor. I am not a politician," he says as he makes his way through the jam-packed hallways of the huge hospital.
"I want peace. I see much pain and suffering in my daily life just coming to work. The people in my village and (hose within these walls, whether Jew or Muslim, live under a black cloud. It’s time for an end to this carnage and destruction and a beginning of peace."
Al Jameer lives in Hebron. Driving through the scarred nibble-filled city the feeling of fear, anger and resentment, as well as (he notable exhaustion of the people, is tangible.
There is no thriving trade, no hustle and bustle and on everyone’s face there is a resolute sense of defeat. The eyes of the Palestinians are dead. For them, hope seems to have long since died.
Silting in al Jameer’s warm apartment with his wife and their children, one cannot but admire how this doctor’s hard work has provided his "family with the kind of home his wife is so proud of.
It is in sharp contrast to the old, small humble home his parents live in in Bethlehem, where a day earlier I had shared ruby rod hot sweet tea served in a quaint glass and adorned with a mint leaf. This home is opulent.
Dr al Jameer’s father-a gentleman with a silvery beard - was the picture of a proud father.
He told me in deep, resonant tones how to him the education of his family superseded all. His beaming wife nodded just as proudly pointing out that her daughter was a matron al a clinic in Hebron.
Dr al Jameer had been a practicing surgeon in Hebron, working alongside fellow Palestinians in a clinic not too far from one of the so-called "illegal" Israeli settlements.
Law forbade al Jameer from operating on any Israeli, since Israeli qualifications differed from those of Jordanian doctors.
But one day, fate was to test the depth of his commitment (to the oath he had taken in a Jordanian medical school some years earlier.)
On that fateful day, a young man was brought lo the hospital on the verge of death, following a motorcycle accident and al Jameer was on call. He immediately set to work on the patient despite the howls of protest from the staff.
"He is a Jewish settler! What you are doing is forbidden!"
There may have been conflict in the minds of his staff. After all, a law was being broken and should this Jewish patient die, the consequences for at Jameer were dire. Somewhere in the tragedy that is the ongoing conflict in Israel and the disputed areas, politics was the might and the power and saving lives was lower on the list of importance.
But al Jameer was deaf to the political conversations around him. He was a surgeon not a politician and he knew he could and would save this Jewish man’s life.
He proceeded to operate on the young man and duly saved his life.
The result of this brave, unselfish and courageous dedication to his profession was resounding. The man’s family was full of praise and acknowledged his brilliance as a surgeon.
The staff of Hadassah Hospital, where the patient was transferred as soon as he was well enough to travel, also acknowledged the skills of al Jameer, and in discussion with them he accepted an offer to fulfill his life’s ambition — to study under their specialist staff and become a plastic surgeon.
This may sound simple. After all, where was me problem if Hadassah Hospital had held out its hand to al Jameer? According to him, there are no problems but there are "irritations" He was speaking of (he few Jewish patients who refuse to be operated on by a Palestinian doctor simply because "Palestinians are the enemy". Al Jameer elucidates.
"If a patient sees that I am about to operate on him and he recognizes that I am not a Jew but a Muslim Palestinian, then my colleagues here politely tell that patient to seek help at another hospital." Hospitals have no time for the parameters political animals set for themselves in a never-ending war of "us versus them".
Doctors are too busy saving lives to ask a gravely ill patient: "Name, age, address and are you one of us or one of them?" Hospitals and doctors are about preserving lives unconditionally.
The young doctor is held in high esteem by his Jewish colleagues. Do they socialise? He smiles.
"They have visited me in Hebron and I have visited with them in Jerusalem. But simply because we work together does not mean we need to be social friends. Our lifestyles differ."
He is held in high esteem by his colleagues yet this man with a distinguished record who has skillfully mended broken bodies and restored life to his patients has to endure the humiliation of road blocks and often badly behaved checkpoint soldiers.
All too often a five-hour wait in a procession of cars means that by the time he reaches Hadassah Hospital, his patients have been passed onto other doctors who live inside Jerusalem and don’t have to suffer the interminable slops and checks.
He nods his head, though, when I remark thai Israel has no choice but to subject Palestinians to this and other humiliations such as body searches, due to their track record of suicide bombings and attacks on innocent people.
He understands just as he understands the Israeli need for a fence to keep the Hamas and al Aqsa Brigade terrorists out. After alt, he operates on the shattered limbs of the victims of terror and sometimes on the bombers themselves, should they survive.
Al Jameer endures the roadblocks, the check points and the other barriers Israel needs to place in his way, as well as thousands of other good men.
He knows full well that as Israel protects its people and its right to exist, people like himself will pay the price.
As I leave him, a young man is wheeled into his consulting room. His left hand is shattered. He was on Bus number 14 and miraculously survived a murderous assault by a Hamas supporter from the disputed territories of Gaza and the West Bank.
No doubt, under the gentle, sensitive and caring hands of doctor like Al Jameer, this young man will recover and have full use of his hands, which we all pray will someday be used in a handshake of warmth and trust.
(Gill Katz is a freelance journalist based in Johannesburg.)
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